Hiya guys! Hubby and I have just been away for a week to a hol;iday cottage in cornwall near his parents, it's been heaven just to be away and be able to spend a whole week together without him working! He's, bless him though, gone back down to cornwall tonight to work a nightshift.. It rained loads until yesterday but we managed to get out and do stuff, we've got some lovely photos and a great video of her smiling - real proper gummy smiles! Was also a useful dry-run for going to cyprus, we completely overpacked!! We didn't use half the clothes we took for her!
So we wont take as many next time! There is a washing machine in the villa so it wont matter if we need to wash clothes while we're there.. She ended up sleeping in with us as the bed was two 3foot beds pushed together so there was loads of room, the first night she woke every hour for a 5-15min feed but by last night she was back to sleeping from 9ish until 4.30 and then slept again until 8ish! I am sooooooooo looking forwartd to the magic 12 week mark a week tomorrow when, hopefully, the colic magically disappears!! I walked round and round and round the lake I dont know how many times in the grounds of where we were staying! Walking really does seem to settle her, I guess it's the rythmical swaying of the sling as I walk maybe? Sonkie - thats interesting about the colief, I was going to get some this week if it didn't settle as some friends we met yesterday used it with her 3.. It's not cheap though is it?! (Not that you care, I'd pay regardlesss if it helps her!) We're also going to look at cranial osteopathy next week if it's not settled too..
You were asking about IMS too, yes - we're getting Jocelyn vaccinated against everything, including MMR.. My own personal take on it is the trial that linked the MMR to autism was DREADFULLY flawed - in fact from what I understand from my HV, it was only carried out on 12 children.. There is no way that 12 children is an adequate sample size and, if such sweeping recommendations are going to be made, then the sample size should have been 1200, even 12000, not just 12... There are now 3 million young children in this country who are not vaccinated which means that herd immunity is now not possible (ie if one child contracts measles, the chance of him or her meeting another child who isn't vaccinated is so small the disease doesn't spread) and for some children (ie those having chemo) vaccination just isn't an option and they rely on other children maintaining that herd immunity.. Measles can do huge amounts of damage to a child, we would vaccinate without question..
Bea - how are you going with the expressing? I stopped after a couple of weeks but found that it really did increase my milk supply.. I found, like you, I would be expressing all day to get the needed 260mls and in the end found it a huge source of pressure that I really didn't need to add to myself! I stopped expressing a couple of days before we went away and it's been such a relief to go back to sole breastfeeding!!
Nina - I'm planning on the 6 month mark for weaning and then going with babyled weaning, offering finger foods as well as mush! The thoughts on leaving it the full 6 months are they're realising now that you produce an enzyme in your breast milk at 6 months - this facilitates the absorbtoin (sp? tried combination of letters including a "p" and they all looked wrong!) of food.. At this time also, the cells in the gut (which have, until now been quite wide apart thus giving a leaky gut so that the milk can be absorbed quickly) close up also.. Theyre starting to link early food with food allergies/intolerances later in childhood as theyve been eaten while the gut was still "leaky".. So, for us, we will try and get to the 6 month mark.. I know there is a huge growth spurt around the 4 to 4.5 month mark where babies wake really frequently in the night again, I can see why a lot of mums wean at this stage as the babies are genuinely hungry - but if you keep feeding you will up your milk in the same way you've done for every growth spurt until then!
Sarah - wooo - you're 3rd trimerster now! On the home run! How is everything coming together? Are you starting to get your nursery/bags/etc together now? It's such an exciting time!
Spooky - congratulations! Hope you have a lovely pregnancy! I also hope the spd passes you by, I had it (was bedbound on morphine, had a hideous time with it) so understand how awful it is.. I probably know no more about it than you but if you want to moan (if it comes back) I am more than happy to listen and if I can suggest any new tips you may or may not have heard then I'll try! I would be interested to know how you go this time though!
