Babies Born April 2008 #5

[Fire]

Grubi, DS is still struggling with the hand sucking thing. He really wants to but isn't coordinated enough yet. Poor sod. It would solve so many of his issues.

I have one of those monologues about thumb sucking if anyone's interested. Babies suck in utero, and there is some evidence to suggest it is an inbuilt self soothing mechanism. If you press the palm of a newborn, they turn their head to that side. If you stroke the side of his mouth, he draws his hand to that place. After some research I have found that cultures that have constant contact and unrestricted breastfeeding have no thumbsucking. This tends to suggest that the mechanism was designed for less than optimal conditions (like us western struggling isolated mamas!).

But I believe it was a fall back plan. In our culture, we usually can't be there 100% of the time for our babies and they need to soothe somehow. They can't just flail in need when we walk away for a minute, or cry themselves to sleep or whatever, that isn't "soothing". But sucking is. So I think nature designed this hand to mouth feature of the baby. Sucking a thumb inutero seems to suggest it is a natural trait. Babies grow out of their physical self soothing by about age four, be it a blanky or thumb sucking or whatnot. Some children keep them longer and some keep them forever, but that's the same with anything. For instance toilet training. In a stress free home, when training is unforced, children won't wet the bed past a certain age. Because some do doesn't mean toilet training is unnatural, or that we should keep them in nappies "just in case" they are still wetting in childhood. know what I mean? I think, if they derive comfort from something, lettum 'ave it! If it seems dangerous (like head banging), then maybe look into why.

[alittlegrubi]

Thanks Fire - your monologue makes me feel better about the hand in mouth to self soothe business. DD only seems to do it when I've given up trying to settle or during the night to resettle.
I'm loathe to give a comforter as I was inadvertently given a comforter and I still have that as my comforter at night at the age of 38, sad, but true. Hopefully she doesn't need her thumb after 4.
I gave DS 50mls of EBM the night before last and he came back with the bottle and said "Mummy, I want some more of this one bottle, please." and gave me the doe eyes so he got another 50ml out of me. He just has the runny nose now, so I think you might be right about the antibodies Fire. DH isn't too sure - he said he doesn't like caramel icecream that made me FOCL.(fall off chair laughing).

Shoegal for Baxter reaching 5kg and 395gm in two weeks is good. Just to let you know there is a little girl in my mothers group who is one day older than my DD and last week she was still only 4.8kgs, when my DD had tipped the 6kg. Some kids are just smaller and the MCHN said as long as she is happy - don't be too concerned to the mother.

Sharon Yippee on the sleeps. Now you need to get sleep too - half of the cause of the low moods is the sleep deprivation altering your body chemistry. So I hope Oliver helps you by sleeping more and you take advantage of it.

Nettie/Fire So I guess when it comes to plastics since we are forced to use plastic so much now as adults since they stopped making glass softdrink and glass milk bottles etc I've probably already created a lot of the problems for my kids before they even start having a bottle.

Shellbell How is the EBM going and the educating of the ILs about how precious it is?

Still find the need to bow down in awe to those mothers with more than one under 4 that are fulltime mums (like Danielle, Lulu and Beatrix) sorry I can't remember all of you. My one day a week is hard enough to deal with, especially the TT and a baby.

Zennie How are things with DP? Improved? Things are much better for us now, we are planning on shipping at least DS (nearly 3) off at least once every 3 weeks to one of our parents and once every 2 months my parents will have both to give us some time to be adults and go out with friends together as opposed to him doing it all by himself. I'm keen on getting the chance to DTD again soon so will be suggesting ILs have DS overnight very soon since they have been OS for 6 weeks.

Okay I've made sufficiently good use of my post this time around I think. Apologies to all of you I missed out on personal comment to.

Seems everyone is avoiding making posts to slow the reaching of that magic 140. It has definitely slowed, is that because we are spending more time with the more alert little darlings?

I agree with Nettie it probably won't make a big difference as we will all either post in both or continue to use just one half irrespective of when in April we gave birth. Maybe we should all just agree on using the first or last half now .


25 posts to the big split

[mgm]

Maybe we should all just agree on using the first or last half now .

LOL grubi! Tell me which half and i'll be there. Or we could just keep editing our old posts to add new info, thus avoiding ever reaching the dreaded 140!

not much time to write right now - but as for hand/thumb sucking, DD often does this while i'm actually holding her; maybe she likes getting a double comfort dose! I just wish she would soothe herself to sleep this way (or any way - i'm not fussy).

gotta run to shops now while DD is asleep in sling. Naps are only 30 minutes these days and it's driving me CRAZY. if she woke up happy it would be fine, but she's always tired and cranky.

[BabyWrangler]

Just thought I'd pop in and let you know that Benjamin put 725g on in a fortnight!!!
That explains the 300ml bottles weekend before last!
Mind you he now still only weighs 6.35kg!

[Nettie]

SG - well done to Baxter! I know that's got to be a weight off your mind. Liam weighed in at 5.22kgs on Tuesday, so not much going on there! At least he's over the 5 kg mark too.

Grubi - I know I'm not on here as much because Liam's so much fun to play with now. I spent an hour this afternoon playing with him (rubbing my face on his belly and giving him big smooches on his cheeks) - he thinks it's a crack-up!

Sharon - Liam either scoffs his 110 mls (our best guess at how much to put on for him) or plays with half of it. It's kinda frustrating!

Liam's sucking his fingers a lot lately, but when they're in his mouth he screws up his face like they taste awful! Funny little fellow!

[shellbell]

Hi all, reading these posts has confirmed that Luke is a giant heffalump - last wekeend I weighed him at 8kgs neat... it's ridiculous - the MCHN just laugh at him! Still just on the booby juice.

week 2 of work is going well. Seem to have gotten a bit of a pattern - mostly me running around like a maddie from 6am until 11pm each day - when I am not feeding I seem to be expressing, but it is going well. Just need to talk Luke into sleeping in on weekends so I can have a rest!

Luke is also very alert and playful - it is jut gorgeous.

Anyway, bed is calling me. Hope everyone is doing well.

[Beatrix]

Wow reading all these pots i think MJ needs to put on some weight!! she is curently 5.5kg and the nanna of the group. But i guess all my girls are small, Annika is only 10kg now

She is finally supporting her head much better as well, she seems to actually bit a bit slower then what my older two were at this age but i guess all babies are different

Shell- i am in awe of you hun!!! you are doing such a great job!!!

Nettie- we have a hand sucker here too!! not much of a dummy fan, which is good cause then i dont really have to take it away from her.


Sorry havent been aorund much, been flat out here. Am thanking god teleah starts kindy next week. I really need a break....
Wth everything that haas happene lately i have been so stressed my milk is drying up so have been put on Motilum for a week and it is already making a huge differnce,
Mj went from waking to feed every 3 hrs maybe even more to feeding once a night again!!!! And even after her feed last night i managed to express 50ml!!!

I am trying to get up some stock so i can give her to exDH for a couple of hrs cause they really need to bond or she wont have a relationship with her dad

well sorry for those i missed, i have to get breaky ready for the kiddies