Belle

I do but annoyingly motion doesn't seem to calm him - he cried all the way down the M4 the other day, in the end I had to climb into the back during a traffic jam. The only thing that really stops it is giving him the dummy but I'd rather not as try to onlyl use it now and again to help with naps. Unbelievable how loud a 6 month old can be!

I posted a few months back about my baby's screaming fits, and got some great advice - pretty much concluded it was largely down to teething pain. Well there are still no teeth (though am sure teething pain still a big factor - all the signs are there) but the screaming fits have recently returned and are worse! No real point to my post as don't expect t here's much advice for this kind of thing other than that it will pass, which is my one comfort. If anyone has a fellow screamer and wants to join a club for screaming babies so we can go and eat lunch in cafes in solidarity, let me know. The other day I took him for lunch in the Tate Modern cafe with a friend - started well, with smiles new round and he won lots of fans. Shortly followed by the entire restaurant staring as screaming fit upon screaming fit befell us...thing is, I k now there's nothing wrong as singing/walking around/surprises do make him stop briefly, and he's been seen recently by a doctor who said he's obviously v healthy. Just likes to express himself I guess...but I can't help envying NCT friends etc whose babies never seem to behave like this! Just needed to vent!

Yes, I don't think I even bothered to seek help from that direction for PND. Actually my midwife did say one of the HVs had really helped one of her patients with PND by visiting her and letting her talk through things on a regular basis but can't see how any of our's would do that - first thing they told me was how little time they have!

That's hilarious (although understand it'd be irritating at the time!). Also my feeling is that I DO know more than them - I know my son! What really worries me though is people who are unsure about what to do with their baby who hang on every word the HV says. I often hear people say 'I must ask the HV if it's ok to do XXX', and i have to stop myself saying 'don't!'.

ARgh, this annoys me so much(the HVs/clinic) - see my thread about weaning! I've basically decided not to go back as we can weigh him ourselves and that's all I was getting out of it. Because he was early, some HVs/Doctors chart his growth as if he was younger than he is, if you see what i mean, but then some don't, which can lead to wildly inconsistent plotting of his growth. in fact, if you do it consistently he's been on the same curve all the way along (not that it really matters but anyway). Plus which they failed to recognise my baby had reflux when I phoned tearfully for advice - given the problems I listed were: crying during feeding and arching back, and being sick a lot, you'd have thought they might have thought of reflux, but the HV's words were 'I'm really stumped, I've nothing to suggest'. It was only by looking on forums like this one that I figured it out and took him to the GP. Sorry - HVs are one of my favoured rant topics at the moment!

Yes, that sounds like a plan. He normally has 7am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm feeds give or take quite a bit!

Lol, I know what you mean. The other day I was amazed to see flecks of bright orange which were clearly the carrots he'd tried the day before - at least it means you can tell if some is actually going down!

Ah thanks Fuschia. Forgot to say that i was prob too honest with the HV. She asked me how many meals he was having, and I said well calling them meals is a bit optimistic, it's more that he's tasting a lot of different things - not sure how much goes down. This prompted the '2-3 meals a day!' instruction. To be honest I have never found the HVs helpful. He's FF, and so I'm giving lots of fruit and water, and v diluted orange juice. Despite the straining, he is pooing plenty (euch - was saying to husband the other day I cna't believe how many of our conversations these days are about poo!) so think he's not really constipated... Thanks for those food ideas, the good thing is they all sound v easy too! think perhaps i've been being a bit ambitious about how much he should be having. The BLW thing is showing me up for the poor dietary habits I have (eg not really having lunch some days), so if nothing else should sort that out!

Is it just me or is weaning a bit of a nightmare at first? Even though we're doing baby-led weaning which is easier in some ways, I just find the transition impossible - n ever know whether to give milk before or after solids, (seem to be pros and cons each way), baby is grunting/straining to push out poos all day long and 90% of what we offer him or let him grab ends up on the floor. The health visitor at clinic last week was very full on, saying at 6 months he should be on 2-3 meals a day - which seems a bit of a steep curve given you're only meant to start weaning at 6 months! Any advice on how to make the adjustment or any fellow sufferers out there?! Teething and frustration as he's trying to crawl at the moment don't help much!

agree with Fuschia that sorting out the daytime naps should help - around about the 3/4month mark I realised they were crucial and am a big fan of 'sleep begets sleep' - yesterday for example, my 6 month old only had cat naps (less than 30 mins), about 3 or 4, as opposed to one short one in the morning, one longish one around lunchtime and a shortish one in afternoon. The latter tends to mean he sleeps well at night, whereas after yesterday he was a nightmare, overtired from about 3 and screaming, and he woke in the night several times and up early today. Thankfully we're in a new routine where my husband takes him in the morning so I got some more sleep.

Ah, congrats Yorkie! Was really nice to hear that things went well from your husband. Great that the labour went well, good luck with the newborn bit and take it easy when you can!

really good advice linzkg. X

Ah, i didn't know that sillywoman, and it does make sense - but even if they could just outline the basics about bottle sterilising and give you a handout (they do this for most subjects covered in NCT classes for instance) that would be good. They do of course give instructions about how to mix formula on packets but not about sterilising, or amounts (they are rough guidelines - nothing on, for example, what to feed a low birth-weight premature baby). Maybe it was just me - I was particularly knocked for 6 by the whole birth/post natal experience and all over the place for the first few months - but I did find the logistics hard, not least because I just hadn't entertained needing to know them! There's also a lot of differeing opinion on whether to make up bottles in advance, since current DoH guidance is not to but many mums end up doing it anyway as it's much more practical. I think if ante natal classes could at least give a nod in the direction of bottle feeding it might make mums who end up doing it feel a bit better. Just my opinion...and apologies again to Bellenden Bear for going off your original topic.

Or even somewhere nice in London? if it has a nice restaurant, you'd be maximising the time you get to yourselves away from the babe. The Charlotte St hotel is meant to be lovely.

I'd be interested too though also wondering what counts as creative?

I too do the 'look at the beautiful sky tonight' which is exactly what my mum does. Think i'm like her in lots of small ways, expressions etc, but can't pinpoint them - but my husband points it out and I always have to agree! Luckily I get on with my mum really well and think she's a great mother, so it doesn't bother me! BUT recently have noticed that my technical ineptitude, and need to have basic IT type tasks explained several times is JUST like my mum. And something I used to think was quite quaint but faintly irritating...

I totally empathise with the experience of trying to figure out the logistics of bottle feeding - I too did it while being completely knackered and unable to process the information I found on the web! I do think the article is right that it'd be useful to get some advice on all this before the birth as part of ante natal classes etc. Back to the original topic...I don't think it's necessarily t hat one formula is better overall but that there might be one which suits your baby best. My GP was very reassuring about the nutritional value of all of them - maybe BB you could start your little one off one one, once a day or something a bit before you go back just to check they're ok with it? Then if you have any problems it's just a case of trying another one.

We've used SMA gold almost exclusively - baby had wind like most of them and also has reflux but other formulas made no difference and infant gaviscon did seem to help a bit. The very lazy plus to SMA gold is you can buy it ready made in 1 litre cartons, i know it's ridiculously uneconomical but it worked for us at the start when things were very tough!

When my baby was first born I used to look at other new mums out and about and think they all looked way more together/in shape/calm/happy/in control than me. That was a big mistake! Try not to compare yourself to other people or do what I do now and just tell yourself they're probably the nanny/young auntie, not really a new mum!

Oh yes - I remember when he was asleep just dreading him waking up, in a kind of scared way! Just because I didn't feel as though I had a clue what I was doing. Def online shop esp all those nappies which are a pain to buy in bulk out and about with a pram. and nice treats for yourself, in my case Tunnocks Tea Cakes :))

Hi Yorkie, my waters broke in the morning and I too did the (bloody hours long!) stint in MAU and went home. For me, my contractions started slowly and then worked up fairly quickly in the evening so I was in established labour by 9pmish and baby was born 8am next day. I didn't do anything to hurry the process, was too busy t hinking about whether my bag was packed etc! Sorry, not all that useful but didn't want to read and not post, know too well that weird waiting feeling! B

Jenren - couldn't agree more!

well...at the risk of being shot down,and absolutely not meant in some kind of pro-formula way, it is worth having a couple of bottles, a bottle of milton to sterilise them with and some cartons of pre-made formula to hand even if you're planning on breastfeeding. I had a nightmare with a baby who had low birthweight, low blood sugars, severe jaundice, the lot. The hospital policy being what it was, i didn't even know there was any formula stocked there and I got very panicky when he wasn't latching on etc given how much he needed to eat. I was quite ill with pre-eclampsia so had problems establishing the feeding. There was so much pressure to keep trying to breast feed it was almost like the bigger priority - keeping my son eating well - was missed. So, either get some supplies in or be prepared to just demand if you have to that they unlock the formula cupboard. It can just be a temporary thing (or not, it's your choice), not like the point of no return. I was very grateful to get the opportunity to use donor breastmilk but obviously it's prioritsed for the babies in special care, and rightly so, so it was only an option for a few days. Also, if your newborn is one of hte ones (like mine!) who stays up all night/won't sleep at night unless held, my midwife came up with a great plan to deal with the early days like that. She came round on our first day home, when he was about a week old. It sounds crazy but we were BOTH staying up most of the night, BOTH fussing over him for feeds/changes etc which meant neither of us was getting any sleep. It's a mark of how tired we were that all logic had gone out of the window! Anyway she set us up on a rota at nights - basically two hours on, two hours off (you can alter it to fit in with feeds if you're breastfeeding) so that we were both getting a few chunks of sleep a night. After a while the babe got the idea of day/night but it was a really simple solution that kept us going in those early days...whoever was up would sit holding the baby and watching DVDs, I got through most of series 1 of Prison Break!

Hi Kate, just to say I empathise - mine is just a bit younger and has been doing the same, I can't figure it out. As others have said, hopefully it's a phase...there's something so depressing about looking at the clock at 8am and realising you've been up for 2 or 3 hours already! I've found that the time we put him down (which varies from 6.30-7.30) makes do difference, nor does the amount he takes at that feed or the 11pm feed, not the amount of time he's awake at the latter feed. I've taken to napping in the afternoons when he sleeps, it's like the early days again! B

I went for similar reasons - forceps birth, baby had terrible wind and reflux - and although I have no idea how it works, my baby did definitely improve, became more settled, slept better etc. His wind got so much better too - from having to wind for over an hour, he was bringing up burps without us trying. He was always very relaxed after sessions too. I went to Tania at the Dulwich Therapy Rooms who I would highly recommend, she was lovely and took lots of details before she started work, and explained what her findings were when she was working with my son. He seemed to really relax in her care. Also don't think of it as manipulation - it's really these tiny little movements so baby doesn't notice at all, in fact in my experience as I say it had a calming effect. Of course I'll never know to what extent other factors helped - generally getting older, using infant gaviscon etc etc - but in my view it was worth it. Am sure others may have different views too.