Babies born~August 1st-15th 2010 #1

Hi girls
We're doing well here too - Liana is loving BLS and so am I. Eating sandwiches here too - lovely soft wholemeal bread, with cream cheese and/or avocado. I leave the crusts on unless they are big or super-hard. She loves it.
She cut her first tooth this week - so proud! And she has progressed from belly-flopping/caterpillar crawling to 'proper' crawling in the last couple of days - now the fun really begins ha ha.

Rob - how is Lilly going weight-wise? At last weigh-in 1.5 weeks ago Liana was 7.3kg - she seems to weigh less than almost all our mother's group bubs (all girls) despite being the oldest. The youngest bub is 2 months younger and is the same size! I'm not too concerned though - she still has plenty of thigh :)

Belle - I see your sig says something exciting!!! Trying for #2 next month - yay! Can I ask (without being rude) what made you decide to try again already? We are trying to work out when to try for #2, it's so hard to plan... especially as I go back to work in July, and we'll probably need IVF again.... I am thinking of seeing our FS in June to have some tests etc and see what he says... Also I am having a bub-free week in QLD in August so will at least be waiting until after that!

Kylie - how is Shani going? I have really noticed Liana's swallowing has improved since I posted last - she is really eating everything now, ha ha. I love it! Lasagne and spaghetti are two of her favourites!

Mrs P I am over the whole weight thing, I actually avoid it. Everyone is alway commenting on how small she is, but as my 12 yo says mum she is so big to us :0). My pediatrician said that as long as she meets her milestones thats all that matters. As the oldest in our group here she is probably still one of the smallest LOL. She is fitting in 00's, some are still too big, And a couple of her 000's still fit. We had to get her christening gown adjusted down to fit again, but if we put it off any longer she will be way too old. So we have booked the church for April 17th. She still doesn't have teeth, she is mobile but isnt crawling, doesnt like it on her belly for long enough to really try anything, she prefers to be in her "saucer" as we call it or her jumperoo. And my darling DH is now thinking Lilly needs a Billy to play with aargh. She was hard work and still is, first the IVF and she is very high maintainance, some days she only sleeps in 30 - 40 minute naps and I so far behind with housework its unimaginable, honestly don't think I could cope with anaother bubs like this again.So I have told him unless by the Grace of God the 5% happens I don't think we are having anymore. He is just going to have to wait til things get better with her. I wouldn't want to have to take my time away from her that would be heart wrenching. Anyways 430 am I better get ready. Stephen & Kids are off to the show with cows, I am staying home I think it's just way too hard really. Cyaz xxx

Hi everyone

Shani is doing well - she has two bottom teeth and eats whatever she can get her hands on!! It certainly doesn't all go down though and can be extremely messy.
Rob - Like Lilly, Shani is also not on the move yet. She sits up perfectly and rocks all the time (makes me think she may end up a bum shuffler like her brother), rarely rolls although she can and hates tummy time. Would quite happily sit and play over other things. She is the biggest drooler!! Shani is still in 00 clothes too although she is starting to really chub up - I think she is around the 8kg mark but haven't weighed her properly since 4 months as 8 months is our next official MCHN visit.
Mrs P - I have 21 months between my two and I feel that anything less would be too much hard work. I don't know how people cope that only have 12 months between babies!! I take my hat off to them. I love the age gap we have - I got pregnant when DS was about 13 months old.
I hope that you are all starting to get better sleep at night - DD sometimes sleeps through but mostly wakes at least once. I am happy with that I suppose. Anyway I am off to bed now good night all :)

Hi again girls, i'm so happy to see that alot of other people have worries over babies weight, as everyone looks at Kobi and comments on how small he is. He still fits into most of his 000 clothes, and is probably just 8kg now at 7 months. But in saying that I know he is healthy, he has a very healthy apetite and he is happy and seems to be right on par with what the experts (well they think they are anyway) say babies should be up to at this stage. He has also just started crawling, and pulling himself up on furniture (oh yes, fun times ahead) and I have just decided to leave the numbers written in the book for records, but not to take anything to heart. I'm trusting my instincts on this one and I beleive he is doing A OK :dance:

Mrs P, we always talked about having our kids close together. My sister and I are 15 months apart and we are now very close which is nice. I know it's going to be alot of work, but I'm prepared to put in the hours plus it helps that my partner runs a business from home and so if I need him he can be on hand most days. Plus when I thought about my life I always imagined being done with having babies by time I was 35 and ideally (if all goes to plan) we would like to have 3, so I've got another 4 years to have the next two, so why not start now. I know some people may see it as selfish, but I didn't particularly love being pregnant so I would like that all over and done with and then I can watch my family grow up together and enjoy the toddler years while I'm still fairly young. Each to their own I know, and it wouldn't suit some people, but it fits in with us. Also I am allowing a bit of extra time as I know some people may not fall pregnant as easily the second time around. We were very lucky and fell within 3 months last time, but I must admit there is less "trying" time these days which I'm sure will make a bit of a difference IYKWIM.

Anyway that's my lengthy post for the day. I hope all is beautiful in everyone else's wold.

Much Love :hug:

Hi Girls, to those of you who's bubs are sleeping through the night, do you have any secrets on how you got to this point?????? Kobi has always been a baby who only ever woke once a night, since he was born. And now for the last month he has been waking 3-4 times a night and I feel we've just gone backwards rather than progressed at all. I've tried so many things, keeping him up later, dong a dream feed, dropping the dream feed, just going in and giving the dummy rather than a feed, giving him water rather than milk, but nothing works. I know all babies are different but I will try almost anything. A friend has told me I should just leave him cry, but I can't do it. Each time I eventually go in to give him some milk he is gasping for it with his mouth already open so he's obviously hungry.

I have been lucky in that my partner will ocassionally get up to him when he know's I'm dead tired, but I still wake up, so it's not like I'm getting any more sleep.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

From a very tired mumma.

Sorry Belle, I can't hep Lilly is a really bad sleeper. When first born she would feed every 2 hours and not much has changed. She is still small and so has more frequent feeds as she doesn't take large amount, well thet's the Dr's explanation. So I would love any tips too.

Hey Belle & Rob.
Liana has been all over the place with her sleeping. At about 3 mths she would do 9pm-5am and I thought AWESOME!! Of course it didn't last long. Sometimes she would be up once a night, other times 2-3 times a night.

When she was 6.5 mths old I asked my GP ( who is a similar age to me with 2 young kids) if she should be able to get through the night without a feed. She said yes. At that point she would sometimes sleep for 10-11 hrs straight but often would wake once too. So I decided her waking was more of a habit. So if she woke before 5am I just re-settled her. For us this involved patting her back or tummy and staying in her room until she was calm and nearly asleep (not completely asleep though). It took an hour the first 2 nights (she wasn't overly upset during this time, more angry that she wasn't getting booby!).
Then she slept through a couple of nights, woke a couple of nights etc. After about a week she was sleeping through more often than not.

Now she goes to bed around 715-730pm and is up around 630am. Mind you she still sometimes stirs during the night but goes back to sleep. I, on the other hand, still wake up at least once or twice a night - hoping to stop that very soon as it's driving me nuts!

Not sure if my post has really offered much useful advice for either of you. Belle maybe you could try the re-settling again?

Whatever you do, be consistent. We were on a routines from day 1, so if George woke any time between 5:30 and 7am, he would have to wait till 7am to have his feed - he soon realised there is no point in waking up early. He now sleeps 6:30pm - 7:30am, and has been doing so since he was 5 months old.

At this age he should be eating enough during the day to sustain sleep through the night (unless he has growth issues/illness etc). There were a few nights where I was just let him cry/whinge a little and after a few minutes he would go back to sleep. My concern was that if I got up each time, he wouldnt learn to self settle and he would also know that if he cried enough, someone would come. If you genuinely think he is hungry during the night, maybe you need to increase his food intake during the day? Or his water - maybe he is getting thirsty? It could be so many things... its hard to give advice without knowing every detail.

Good Luck!

Ok so last night was my first night attempting to get through the night with no feeds, and it wasn't as bad as I expected :)

We put Kobi to bed at about 6.45pm with lullabys playing quietly (our new bedtime routine which is working wonders) within about 15 minutes he was sound asleep. Then at about 9.15pm he woke crying so I thought I would give him a bottle since I was still planning on doing the dream feed at 9.30 anyway. He didn't drink the whole lot but fell straight back asleep. He then woke at about 11.40pm and because I thought my night was going to be alot worse than it was I just gave him the rest of the bottle he hadn't finished at 9.15 (about 20mls) and he settled straight back to sleep again. He then woke at around 2am (things a bit hazy by this time so not 100% sure I was seeing the clock right), so I went in to settle him only to find that he had wet through his nappy, so we then had to change nappy, clothes, sheets etc but the whole time I was determined not to give him a feed. I then tried to settle him by rubbing his back and shhhhh'ing him but with me in the room he was just getting agitated as he expects a feed if he see's me (habit I guess), so I then thought I would replay the lullaby's and go back to bed. I could still hear him and he shuffled around for about 30 mins, but no whingeing :dance:

He then slept until 5.30am where he let out a tiny cry to which my partner went to get up to for a feed, but by time he got out of bed silence again. He was sound asleep and stayed sound asleep until 7.30am :clap:

So we will repeat the process again tonight and see how we go. I do think if he hadn't soaked through the nappy he may have even stayed asleep. I did say to my partner as I was stripping the bed, if it's not one thing it's another, but I know it's just perserverance and these things will happen. I have a nice feeling that we may be on our way to at least one or two nights of full sleep. Thanks for the advise girls, I will keep you updated on the progress.:pray:

Oh and one more thing I started as of yesterday was no dummy during the day, no matter what, and I then leave 2 in his cot on a night so that if he loses one, he will hopefully find the other and self settle back to sleep. Seemed to work as I could hear him rattling the dummies around so he knows where to find them. Once we have his sleeping sorted out the dummy is the next thing to go :dance:

Hope all is well with everyone else xo

Well done Belle! It was hard for me the first night too. But if you stick with it, I am sure more sleep will come. I know what you mean about there's always something.. Liana has been sleeping through more often than not now, yet I keep getting woken by things like my cats, the neighbours cats fighting outside my window, my alarm clock (that we don't ever set) going off at midnight... Oh I could go on!
Goodluck tonight ;)

AFM - it's my bday and Liana gave me a sleep-in that allowed me to eat the pancakes with strawberries, blueberries and real maple syrup DH made me! We had our swimming lesson, caught up with a friend who bought some delicious cakes (which I ate for lunch!) and I am catching up on American Idol (hee hee) while L naps - and we're going out for Italian tonight with some of my girlfriends. So far a great day!

Hi there, I cant begin to think how long its been - sorry. I caught up with Melinda on Saturday (Ruby2Shoes) and had a lovely day together with our girls. I've been caught up with a full time career, the whirlwind of beng a new Mom and a hubby that travels o/s a lot so Ive been juggling with some style and grace however there have been a few things that have slipped. Sorry.

Life is good. We've moved into an apartment in Caringbah and little Saoirse is such a happy girl. She's with my parents on Mon & Fri, long day care on Tues to Thurs and we dote on her from Friday afternoon till Monday morning. My life is so much richer for this amazing and very precious experience.

I would love to keep in touch and reconnect if you're all still chatting.

Im now through the haze and out the otherside - I made it! There are many a time still that I feel quite clunky not really knowing what to do but I'm sure we all feel like that first time around.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Warmest,

Jenx

Hi everyone,
Like Jen I have also been absent for a while, I have often thought of how everyone is doing. Great to read everyone is great!
I can't believe our babies are all coming up to their first birthdays....amazing how the time has flown.
The past few months we've been through the winter illnesses and juggling me going back to work part time - in a new career direction which has been exciting and challenging. Putting Amelia in daycare and now removing her after a very distressing incident in the babies room where she was left to cry it out, tears rolling off her chin, while 3 staff members stood by and had a chat. There was another little 6 month old baby boy also distressed at the same time whose needs were being ignored. I happened to walk in on the situation, so glad I did. Especially since I'd been called to the centre to collect her early as she was unwell. Even more reason to be giving a little baby a cuddle or at least have them on your hip, wouldn't you think?! It took me 5 minutes to calm her down and stop her sobbing. Just heartbreaking :cry: and infuriating. I reported it and spoke at length with the director who was obviously mortified but I am just not convinced.

So we are now investigating family day care and juggling working from home while we work it out. My biggest lesson in this has been to really go with my gut feel and trust my instincts as a mum. I have had a feeling something wasn't right at the centre for a while, despite Ruby being there for the past 3 years. There has been a change over of staff in the past 6 months and things just haven't felt "right" without being able to actually articulate anything concrete. Now I know. I could kick myself for not acting on my instincts sooner. It's been a good wake up call for me. I have since also been directed to the ncac.gov.au website and have been able to look at the standards for childcare centres, which is a fabulous resource for anyone else looking into childcare or wanting to know more.

Otherwise, everything is great and Amelia has just started to crawl (at 11 months) and has only 2 teeth but with the others on their way I am sure, as we have had night waking the past week or so - normally she sleeps through. I am sleep deprived again! We are very much looking forward to Spring and being able to get outside - only another 6 weeks, yay! Sydney has been so wet! But it is a gorgeous sunny Sunday today so we are now off for a family walk.

Hope you are all well and enjoying the weekend! What is everyone doing for first birthdays? Any ideas on first birthday presents? We have everything because of Amelia having an older sister so I am stumped this time on what to get her - maybe just a deposit into her savings account?

Melinda xxx

Wow, where did that time go???? Its almost a year and as I reflect back to what was pressing and important this time last year its hard to believe that so many wonderful experiences and milestones have been shared.

Saoirse is doing well and is still off the charts for her height. A darling, sweet and happy little girl who embraces all things colourful, music and social being. She's beginning to walk and took her first couple of steps the other day. Still using furniture to hang onto in most cases and loves her 'hippo' walker, its not too far off before we witness our sweetheart into the 'toddler stage'.

Justin is still travelling extensively for work and has loved our first year as a family. We moved back to 'The Shire' to be closer to family for support and connectivity. Im working full time and enjoying the challenges each day brings.

Saoirse is sporting five teeth with a few more on the way down. She has lots of pearly white/gummy smiles and a cute little scrunched up look when you call her name. Her babbling is become clearer and clearer as words begin to become more recognisable and he love for food is evident. Chickpeas and lamb are her favourites but dont be fooled - she loves her desert!

With the sales still on we've been milling around toy shops, target and all things educational. We settled on a rocking 'Winnie the Pooh', a talking 'tea set' and a sizable sum in a bank account. Hopefully with a cash injection each year and at Christmas we can start our little fairy off in the right direction with saving towards her hopes and dreams.

We have debated on how to celebrate her birthday as no doubt most of you have too. As we're in an apartment its difficult to know if the weather will be kind for an outdoor picnic party or if we're to have a small indoor celebration. We've opted for a very intimate 'High Tea' cupcake and champagne party for immediate family and godparents. No doubt Saoirse will be completely unaware of what all the fuss is about but I will feel as though we've honoured our treasured bubba with a fitting little celebration.

Im sorry Ive been out of touch. I will make more of a concious effort to say connect in and enjoy the great times and incredible moments you all have to share.

Lots of love,
Jen, Justin & Saoirse xxx

WOW the first year is nearly gone for us all.

Miss Lilly is walking about 6 steps at a time but preferes them to be on her foam mats in the lounge. We bought 4 lots at kmart for only $15 each and covered the whole floor which helped her mobility heaps. She still won't walk on the hard floor so we put her in the walker.

Her eating has been a bit dodgy, and I can't believe I survived the first year LOL. the dr's have hammered me a fair bit about her being small but I think if she is moving forward its all good, as does the pediatrician. But the GP's here seem to think we need speech thereapists etc. I made Stephen come to the last appt and they really backed off, I think they just knew I was tired and pushed me that bit more because of it, he was very clear that enough is enough.

Not sure what our plans are about no 6. Have some land on the market and need that to build a nice big room on the back which we would definitely need to have another one. Lilly on her own will cope fine but two I think would need that little more room. So we will see how it all pans out.

I am in limbo about work, study etc as Lilly is the first of ours where I haven't worked so am finding it unusual, struggling with routine & priorities and the lack of family support this time round has definitely proved interesting. Especially given that Stephen is now working full time and I spend alot of time alone.

Anyway can't wait to hear how everyone is getting on and where all our little ones are at.

Take care of yourselves xxxx

Hi all :D
I am the very proud mother of one cheeky little pixie, Florence who has just turned one on the 3rd of August. I wanted to say hi, and hopefully have a chat with you all :) Cass

Hi all,

My son was born in Aug 2010...I am staying at home with him at the moment and loving every minute. Would love to chat with and meet other mums. I am sydney

Welcome Lil pixie and scarletvee :)

Well I can't believe how time is flying by. Liana is nearly 14 months old now and running around, she's a real 'toddler' ha ha. We're going well with BLS, so glad we went down that track. She's still (touch wood) a good sleeper at night but is usually up around 6am ha ha!! Still on 2 day sleeps at the moment.
I've been back at work 3 days/week for about 2.5 months. It's going ok, nice to have a bit more adult time but if I had the choice I'd rather be home. But the $ is useful and going to daycare (2 days) and 1 day with Nana has been brilliant for her. She's much more independent, not so much of a cling-on Mummy-only girl, and loves cuddles with Poppy and Nana now. So all going well really.
We're talking about #2, we have to do IVF again so that's not going to be too fun. But we have 6 frozen embies so that's a good starting point I guess. I think we're going to try for a FET in the new year and take it from there...

Hope everyone is going well!

Hi everyone - i can't believe that our little ones are one already, where has the time gone. Shani is 14m this weekend and not walking yet. She just started crawling before she turned one, and is starting to pull herself up on things now. Her brother was a slow walker too so I'm not too concerned. She is a very cheeky monkey and is very determined when she wants something. Mrs P, we did the BLS too and Shani is now eating yoghurt with a spoon on her own (I am NOT allowed to help lol). I have been working 3 days a week too and DD loves daycare. She gets so excited when we get to the front door. I know that they have taught her twinkle twinkle little star, as she started doing all the motions one day when I was singing to her. I have found working as a teacher pretty full on with two littlies as I don't like the amount of homework I need to do as it takes away my family time. I think I will stick to casual teaching for a while longer. Anyway I hope you all are doing well :)

Kylie.
PS Good luck with TTC Mrs P - I know IVF is a tough process, but the outcome is so worth it xx