Hi girlies and hi to Char and Kittykat, good to "meet" you both!

Yay, another hairy baby - both Liebling and Jemima are hairy ones. Liebling looks so grown up with all his hair, it's sad to think he no longer looks like my "baby", but he's soooo big now. I swear he's grown at least an inch this week.

Char, you're not a failure. I was made to feel like that in hospital - day 2, my milk hadn't come in (of course!) but the evil midwife made me feel like I was killing my lad, even saying if I didn't give him formula they'd take him away and do it anyway. So that started us on the formula route, then he has a slight tongue-tie (so tiny I wouldn't have noticed it if not told, bad mummy me, he can stick his tongue out and everything) so I was told the BFing problems were all due to that... actually, Liebling had an infection and was soon refusing all food I didn't express and pipette down his throat (he's a feeding champion). Liebling ended up back in hospital (on day 6) on the special care baby unit, but thankfully everyone there was very pro-expressing, but he was still topped up on formula a lot. I've only just started to catch up to his demand needs and will look at dropping the bottle today. If the SCBU team weren't pro-expressing then I'd be having to formula feed now. It has taken a couple of weeks for me to stop needing to top him up quite so much anyway. Anyway, the point to this long bit is that the more you BF the more milk you get, so you can re-start BFing now if you want, and keep topping up until you have enough milk, and you really aren't a failure for giving the lad formula; you'd only be a failure as a mother if you had your heart so set on BFing him that it killed the lad. Well, that's what I had to tell myself as I couldn't stop crying for those first few bottles in SCBU and I usually make my DH do the bottles now.

Amy, 1am to 4pm sounds perfect for a first stage! Mine was 7.30am on Monday until about 10.30am on Tuesday... well, 10.30 to 1ish, as I started wanting to push at 10.30 and was given the go-ahead, but "officially" it was 1pm as otherwise the hospital team had me pushing for too long without seeking Obstetric advice! I really hope the next one will be easier.

Kel, yay for Jemima being perfect! I knew she would be, she was in the perfect babies thread! This will have to be the new perfect babies thread, so all the other Feb girls can join in with their perfect babies. I can only make out that it isn't Liebling crying when we're out because all the other babies at my coffee morning are sooo much quieter - including the four month old lad! When Liebling starts, he just goes for it. So I try not to let him start, of course. But he's great at when I can't settle him, just turning his face to my ear and yelling "hwaa, hwaa" straight down it... I think he wants me to cry too!

Wow, Nat, Beau was a big lad! Congratulations! Liebling lets me get just over five hours in the first stretch of the night now so I'm feeling fantastic in mornings, but once we've done the 5.30 feed I usually can't get back to sleep because that lasts until 7, or just after. DH had a week off, but his anxiety problems (and me being back in hospital) meant he didn't take longer off, but my mum stayed for a week after that. Must confess, I did appreciate the help, but I'm glad it's just the three of us now. I was getting most jealous of letting her have play-time with Liebling! Well, aside from at meal-times - but I'm getting used to eating and feeding at the same time.

Michelle, poor you! I (fingers crossed and touching wood) missed that, but then again I did all my sobbing over giving Liebling formula, so had no other tears for anything else.

What is new with me? Well, the heel pr!ck test didn't work on day 6, so they're going to do it this morning. I'm not too happy with another needle, but it's something we have to do. DH is being fabulous, keeps telling me what a wonderful mummy I am, but is still not ready to come back to bed all night with me, although we did have a nice cuddle this morning. Thankfully Liebling was quiet for about an hour before starting to snuffle about so we could have some grown-up time... I really miss that!