*March 2009 beautiful mummies* [Archive] - Bub Hub Pregnancy & Parenting Forum

kar

14-03-2009, 17:33

Ha Ha MummyJ, I am actually a Feb mum but am hanging out in March because that was my due in!

Freya, I can't wait to read your full birth story - your quick version in our March thread was beautiful!

Well, we don't have much to report here really. Felix continues to be a chilled out bubs, although is starting to have short unsettled periods, but as long as he gets a snuggle he calms down very quickly. Have learnt the hard way that even if he is sleeping in the pram being out for 3 hrs+ at a time is not good for either of us!! Need to keep excursions shorter although it is tempting to try and do lots in one hit.

Also am starting to get quite bad back pain from BF in BAD chairs/sofa. Bought an ikea chair today that seems like it might do the job until we work out how we can afford a new quality sofa.

As for the birth, I can't believe it was 2.5wks ago!! Felix came very quickly and I had a short but incredibly intense labour. Bub was posterior and I had full back labour and I was pretty much out of my mind!! However, can't complain as it was pretty much all over in about 4 hours. I was 4cm dilated at 7am and fully dilated with bub ready to come out by 8.30. Pushing him out with only my husband and much loved Ob there was probably the best experience of my life. Because he came early and quickly no one had a clue we were having him so had blissful time to ourselves with him and told people in our own good time later in the day.

I am realising now how fortunate I was to be in such good physical shape straight after birth and having had a short labour so not exhausted. I think that my good physical health has really contributed to the fantastic start to life we have had with Felix. As has DH having two full weeks off and planing on working 4 days/week for a couple of months.

I actually went swimming today and was out for one whole hour! Checked my phone 4 times in that hour, but pretty good going none the less. Felix slept through the entire outing apparently. Think Rich wanted him to wake up and have some alone time with him but he wouldn't oblige.

So, where are all the other March mums hiding?? Melly, so glad you have made it here!

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend.

nae1709

16-03-2009, 14:34

I'M HERE!!!!

So glad to finally be able to call myself a mum, just loving it!

mummyJ

16-03-2009, 14:56

welcome!!! yay!!! how exciting!!!
Gotta love these March bubs!!! They all seem so chilled out I gotta say!!!

lochie&coopersmum

17-03-2009, 14:58

Hey all

Well Cooper is finally here :smiliedance:.

----------Birth Story----------

Was abit of a mucked up day last thursday when Cooper was born.

As i am sure u all know i was booked in to be induced last wednesday and wasnt to keen on the idea so got an appointment wednesday morning to discuss my options.

Saw one of the doctors and he finally read my file and got quite angry with the previous doctor i had seen at my last appointment. Supposedly it isnt a good idea to try and induce someone when they have had a csection.

So the doctor called the hospital and booked me in for a csection the next day.

Got to the hosptal at 7pm thursday morning and was taken into a room. A midwife told me that i was first up which suprised me as the doctor had said he had had to squeeze me in. Anyway, they started doing all the paper work with me, shaved my bits lol and put a catheter in (ouch). One of the midwifes went out to check something and came back to tell me i am actually 4th in line and then later again to say i am 3rd in line lol.

Got up to the surgery waiting room where they found out i hadnt had my bloods taken so that if need be they could get blood for me. So had to have that done before i went into get the csection done. The guy that was putting the drip needle into my arm did it two times, bruised me good and proper and then had to get another person to do without a local.:(

So was in the waiting room for about 2hrs, in pain from the needles and feeling uncomfy from the catheter.

Finally get into the surgery room, and started getting abit scared. They tried three times to get the epidural to work but they kept hitting nerves in my back so i could feel everything.

Anyway after all that **** happened i obviously broke down from stress and pain.

But in the end i forgot all about how messed up everything was.

Cooper is the most gorgeous baby. Weighed 8lbs 15 1/2oz. And thankgod he didnt engage as supposedly the cord was loosly around his neck and his cord was abit shorter then most.

Im so happy lol

Sorry bout how long and crappy this is written, im not a very good story teller lol.

nae1709

18-03-2009, 12:00

Just thought I'd play the proud mumma & show off my beautiful princess.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10341459@N05/sets/72157615354878497/

melbryan

18-03-2009, 12:38

They are just beautiful Renae!!!!They will be so good to have in years to come she will love them and know how much mummy and daddy love her in those pics!!!

Congrats she's beautiufl!

tinytotsmum

18-03-2009, 16:56

hey all you wonderful ladies WE HERE. wow i cant believe we all have our babies feels like it was only last month we were still going through our first trimester together and complaining of the morning sickness lol. well ill soon put picks up of our beautiful emily louise i have been trying to get the hang of the mum thing so have been bit busy especially with all the paperwork god. well anyways hope to be chatting to you all constantly again soon.

oh and welcome to the new march mummies that i seen have joined welcome to our march family.

mummyJ

18-03-2009, 20:42

Wow - those photos are amazing!!!!
I really want to get some professional family shots taken!!

Here are some of my photos of our little girl...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=81192&id=669871274&l=a72959fb17

bongos

18-03-2009, 23:27

Hi everyone! :)

I've just come over from the due in March thread too, though my bub (Lily) was born on
February 24. Can I join in here too?

Look forward to chatting to you all,
Lisa

mks

19-03-2009, 09:16

I'm here!! Will come back later and post more but for those I don't know from March due date thread :wave:! I'm Marie and my little girl is Ella who was born on her due date in a very speedy labour!!

19-03-2009, 11:28

Guess I should pop in here now too. For those who don't know we had our second baby girl on the 10th. Big sister has adjusted well and little sister is very settled and content.:cloud9:

:wave: everyone. I've only got 1 hand atm, so will do personals later.

trifecta

19-03-2009, 11:29

HELLO!! I'm here too, and couldn't be happier :D
Kar my little man is so content too, feeding every 3hrs and straight back to sleep, he is making it very easy been a first time Mum and I've never been more relaxed! He hardly ever cries other then the nappy changes and nudie time too.
I'm sitting here patiently waiting for him to wake up so he can have a bath then we are heading out for the first time to the shops.
My Mum is here until next week so she's done all my housework for me and now I have nothing to do! I feel great cause I got a great sleep last night and me and Mum are just sitting around....
Feeling better and better everyday, was in quite a bit of pain from the labour and didn't really expect to have such a slow recovery, my tail bone is still quite tender though.
Any way just a quick pop in to say hello, and looking forward to our chats.

19-03-2009, 13:54

My Mum is here until next week so she's done all my housework for me and now I have nothing to do! I feel great cause I got a great sleep last night and me and Mum are just sitting around....

Can I borrow your mum?:laughing: It sounds like she is being a wonderful support for you!

DH is having a bad day at work, so he's coming home and we're heading out. DD1 is at kindy, so it's just going to be the 3 of us. Nothing interesting to do, but I haven't left the house all week so it will be nice to see the outside world(but only for a few minutes).

kar

19-03-2009, 15:01

Hi everyone:wave:

Hmm, think Felix is developing reflux. Last 4 days he has been squealing after a feed when we try to put him on his back - sharp short squeals, not a 'cry' as such and has done a few projectile vomits about 5 mins after feeding. But is happy to be upright. He is doing lots of farts and poo and quite a few burps so no wind blockages.

Was at a friend's today who has a reflux bub and she watched his feed/squeal/vomit routine and said it is exactly how her bub was when the reflux started.

Any tips? I have been trying to feed him in a more upright position which I think is helping little bit. It hurts me to see his little face screw up and go red and squeal!!

Aside from this issue he continues to be very content happy bubs with good sleeping patterns, although he has had a couple of nights where he doesn't want to go back to sleep after one of his night feeds.

Does anyone have any views about not letting them sleep for more than a 3 hour cycle during the day? I really don't fancy attempting any sort of routine given he is only 3 wks, but he seems to be in an awkward pattern at the moment where he is sleeping all morning and or afternoon, feeding at around 5.30 then 4 hourly and wanting an awake/play time after his 2am ish feed.

However, for those small complaints life is GREAT!! Loving life, loving Felix and loving DH.

Oh, another question. I am fully breastfeeding and plan on continuing to do so but want to start expressing to build up some emergency feeds in the freezer. If the intent is only for babe to have a bottle rarely (like maybe once or twice a week) is it worth getting an electric pump or will a hand pump do the job?

Glad everyone's darlings seem to be treating them kindly.

Kristen

lochie&coopersmum

19-03-2009, 15:14

Hey Kar i am fully breastfeeding aswell and have just bought a hand pump as i only want to do rare bottle feeding aswell. The electric ones seem kinda expensive for the small amount i will be using it. I bought an avent one and it works really well.

trifecta

19-03-2009, 16:05

Kar- I'm fully BF too and have brought one of the Medela mini electric pumps. I thought I would start expressing to build up my supply a bit and have some of those emergency feeds too, although I haven't started yet. Thought I might from tomorrow, he'll be a week old. Jacob does the biggest farts and poo's too, I never knew such a little thing could do such explosive farts! lol

Newme- Hope your adventure outside blew away some cobwebs for your DH. We had a big outing to the shops this afternoon, well 30mins is a big outing! My DH went back to work today, but with Mum here it's been o.k. Infact I feel a bit guilty that Jacob is such an easy baby that Mum might be getting bored... ah well. I'm letting her do her thing, she has dinner all ready to go and on the table by 5:30 every night.

Oh he's squawking away, better go....

nae1709

19-03-2009, 19:19

Evening March Mummies!!!!!

Well it seems that all our March bubbas are all very content little beings.

Sahara is just a dream (touch wood it remains that way). She is feeding really well & allowing us long sleep periods during the night. All she does is sleep, with a decent wake time in the morning & afternoon. She is well on her way to regaining weight, definitely will be back up to her birth weight before the 2 week mark. I can't believe she is a week old tomorrow!

As for me I'm recovery really well, my stitches don't even bother me anymore. We had the biggest outing today with my mil & sil. We walked around the shops for hours. My back was killing me but I guess the exercise is good for it. Sahara pretty much slept the entire time except when she feed.

I was a bit anxious to go out today with the mil & sil without dh. I don't exactly bond extremely well with them & definitely don't agree with things they say. I really prefer to have dh around as a sort of buffer zone. Not too sure how much longer mil intends to stay as she flys home on Tuesday. I'm hoping she will head back to sil place for a couple of nights though. I'm so looking forward to having the house back to ourselves & really settling into being our own little family.

As for the expressing I'm sort of in the same boat as I want to let dh do some feeds so he can bond with bub. I've got the out & about Avent hand pump. I tried it out a couple of times when I had ot express prior to giving birth because of the GD. It went ok but I think I need to master the art a bit more. I'm just concerned that it will cause me to produce too much milk though. I seem to have a pretty darn good supply already & don't want to upset the natural order of things. Getting mastitis scares the hell out of me as I'm not a small girl in the boobies department.

Anyway I'm off to have a shower & head to bed as I'm exhausted. Have bub's first GP appt tomorrow, so hope they don't try to tell me she is jundice!

kar

20-03-2009, 07:33

Last night Felix had a reflux session after his 11pm feed and DH said "you go to bed and I will sort him out" Anyway, thanks very much so I did and actually went to sleep after shutting the hall door on the crying.
Anyway, this morning poor DH - you would have thought he had been awake all night. Apparently it took until 12.30 to get Felix to sleep. Hilarious. What does he think I am doing between 2 and 4 the last three mornings!? Then after most of his feeds during the day?
Don't get me wrong, he wasn't complaining about doing it, just saying that it was pretty tough and he was very tired this morning. I do feel like saying "Don't you dare claim tiredness!" He still got about 6 hrs of consecutive sleep as he had to have a bit of a sleep in this morning!

This reflux thing is going to be a real bugger. Felix had been really good at self settling, but with the reflux we need to hold him for about half an hour at least after each feed and can't put him on his back. I am worried he will start only being able to go to sleep if he is held. Although he was fine after 3.30 feed this morning and is back in his cot now awake but not upset.

NAE I don't know how you do it with the outlaws. An hour visit is about all I can handle at the moment! Don't over do it with the exercise, it is still early days even if you are feeling great.

Think I have decided to get the Medela Electric Swing. It is quite expensive but if I do go back to work a couple of days a week when Felix is around 6 mths I will need to be expressing quite a bit for those days. It also seems to have excellent reviews and is recommended by ABA. Once you factor in bubs 2 and 3 it is not expensive anymore! Yes, I am already talking about 2 and 3 and so is DH. I seem to have lots of milk too and hope it doesn't increase supply... Felix had a 4.5 hour cycle last night and I woke up so sore and with milk leaking everywhere then he didn't want a big feed, little bugger!

mks

20-03-2009, 09:13

Morning girls, I am home on my own with Ella today. Micahel is at daycare and this is the 1st day that my mum hasn't come over. She is such a good girl though. She's asleep right now. I should be tidying up my house instead of being on bubhub though!

I had an Avent manual pump with DS but I actually got rid of it cause it seemed really grotty when I was going through all the baby stuff. I bought a new one - the Isis I think which is manual or electric. Lets hope I get good use out of it because I don't know that I will even have any more children. I would love too and it makes me sad to think this may be my last newborn but I don't know that we will go again since we have one of each and 2 healthy children.

How is everyone who had tearing going? I am still quite sore. A lot better than I was in hospital but it still aches. Is that normal? Ella is 10 days old. I am not used to this since I had a ceasar last time. I just had to go to the bathroom :o and I feel like I have streched it all out again!

melbryan

20-03-2009, 09:33

I have one of those mini electric they are loud ( well mine is) but I have to express between every feed because my nipples are cracked and I am trying to heal them. I am fully BF too and can't do without my expressing machine I didn't really bother with the boys about using it but this time I didn't want to give up BF in the first week which I thought of doing. It was about $120 but glad I have it.

Leah is just such a content baby like alot of your girls and boys. SHe feeds well and then goes straight back to sleep. Last night she fed at 12am and then woke at 5.30am thank you baby Leah I got to sleep.
She has been sleeping since then and it is nearly 10.30am I know they say to wake them but I never do and prefer to think they will wake when they are hungry and then take as much food as they need to sleep.

I can't remember who said their bubs had reflux but I have had a reflux bubs and I would take them to the docs or paed and ask about it cause Ds1 got really bad and I never did anything about it and it exhausted me I started to get PND.

I am feeling OK got to go out for lunch with DH ( his b'day)yesterday while MIL looked after the kids. I felt exhausted but got to have a lie down earlier that day.
My mum has not helped me at all so I get rather jealous with other mum's who have been a great support. I got out of hospital on Fri and DH went back to work on Mon I had all 4 and found it really hard I was so tired. Asked mum but she had something on ( NICE). Lucky someone came to help me (an old workmate) on Tues and someone brought some dinner for us ( spag bol). I am just so thankful Leah is such a good baby.

Been OK today but really miss my hubby he has been such a good help for me and with only him it's hard to see him go off to work.

I have to mention Renae I just loved those photos. I wish I had some like that.

Freya

20-03-2009, 11:02

Well M is now 4.7 kilos so clearly he is doing well!

I still haven't taken him to the doctors yet since the birth but I am thinking now there really is no point he is thriving. He is quite unsettled some periods over the day and I can barely put him down, thank God for the sling!

We got our new pram yesterday, a bugaboo. It was such a good deal. It ended up costing me nothing out of pocket because of selling a couple my pram and a couple of other things that I didnt even buy in the first place plus it was near new condition on ebay for a great price, so bargain for me baby!:thumbsup:

It's a great pram though, really good how the bassinet can be tilted... Bubby hates laying flat. He is asleep in it right now with the breeze on him because it is sooo hot here. We got the skateboard for it for K and he think it's great!

MKS- It's normal to still be in a fair bit of pain after tearing. I was in pain for weeks after DS1. This time I was lucky I didn't even feel like I gave birth but with K it was awful so all of you with tearing sure have my sympathy!

I'm getting the medela electric swing so I can express for my nephew I won't be expressing for M though because I don't want him having bottles. Might look into donating milk aswel... My supply is great this time around thank god!

kar

20-03-2009, 13:10

It was me re reflux. I am going to give it until my next MCHN visit next Wed and try smaller feeds more often - feed every 3 hrs or more often if Felix wants and try keeping him upright during and after feeding and see if it helps. If it doesn't seem to assist much I will head to the paed. If there is one thing I seem to have worked out with this bub thing it is try out what comes naturally but if you don't feel like you are getting anywhere ASK FOR SOME HELP!

Freya - I had forgotten that the bug bassinet tilts, might try that for Felix's reflux too. Doesn't sound like M needs a check up. I second the thank god for the sling. I love being able to pop Felix in when he is unsettled. It is really working well for me and DH.

MKS - catching up via bubhub is much more important and better for your mental health than tidying!

I am going for the electric medela swing too. For others thinking about getting it the best price I have found is $249 at Chemist Wherehouse, you can buy it online.

My mum has offered to have Felix for a couple of hours next Tue (DH' b'day) but DH doesn't think he can stand to be separated from him at night! He is struggling with being at work away all day I think. Thank goodness he is able to work 4 days for a couple of months and has also been going in early and coming home by about 5.15. It is really great for all of us. I am finding 5.30 is about when I hit the wall each day and really need a rest.

tinytotsmum

20-03-2009, 20:03

heya all just popping in.

kar as for the sleeping pattern our little emily wakes every 2 to 3 hours over night and i end up having to wake her during the day for feeds as she has slept up to 5 hours and still hadn't woken so i let her sleep 3 to 4 hours then wake her other wise around 10 till 12 or sometimes right till 1:30 she wont go back to sleep. i got told from my midwife that, that is the pattern that the babies got into in utero as our walking during the day kept them asleep and during the night we were resting so they would wake and that eventually she would get into the 2 to 3 hour routine if we persisted.

as for the feeding i have to express as my nipples are to flat and i have a small electric one.

cant remember who it was that was talking about there dp and the reflux. my dh has been great he takes either the first night feed or the first morning feed to let me sleep for a couple more hours which is great but he goes back to work soon so we will see if it lasts. bit scared tonight as i have sent him out with his rugby mates for a couple of drink as i thought he would like it and he has been helping sooooo much with everything but i am a bit worried about how i gonna go by myself tonight hopefully all will go well.

well better run it is bath,feed,change time and need to go wake her up been 5 hours again.

oh by the way the ladies that dont know me have just had our first little girl emmy lou on the 11th and i am in perth.

lochie&coopersmum

22-03-2009, 16:50

Well just a quick little msg from me as seem to be run off my feet or totally buggered to get on the computer much these days.

Cooper is doing really well. Has exceeded his birth weight quite nicely and the midwife that came out today was very happy with him :yelclap:.

His skin has started to peel recently and we reckon it may have something to do with the fact that he was overcooked lol.

Oh and on the explosive poo chat lol Cooper is awesome at doing them. We have learnt to keep the nappy there until everything is ready lol.

So everything seems to be going well apart from having the sorest boobs ever cause i have so much milk lol.

Hope we are all well:hugs:

boy wrangler

22-03-2009, 17:32

hi ladies! I'm going to put in an appearance here too!

Archie was born on the 13th, an emergency caesar after 18hrs of labour. I was trying for a VBAC so was actually loving being in labour after a planned caesar (but unwanted) last time!

He is very tall, 56cm, 3.4kg. We have a lovely CHN so will be taking him to see her on Thursday. I'm expecting a weight gain, he loves the boob! Plus he'd exceeded his birth weight before we left the hospital!

He's been pretty good so far, sleeping well at night, no complaints!

lochie&coopersmum - archie is really peely too, they said from being overdue. He was 6 days over and very wrinkly and now very peely! Are you using anything on his skin? We're using a lovely lavendar massage oil but it doesn't seem to be doing much.

Hope everyone else is travelling well too!

mummyJ

22-03-2009, 20:55

My bubbas hands and feet stopped peeling after a few days of daily massage using sweet almond oil or another gorgeous organic moisturister I got her.

kar

22-03-2009, 20:56

Felix is peeling too and he was two weeks early!

He is more kind of flaking. And has pimples.

Still gorgeous though!!

23-03-2009, 09:31

DD was 1 1/2 weeks early and is also peeling. I wasn't sure if I should be doing anything for it or just letting it stop naturally. Regular baths are helping, but it's still going, no signs of it actually stopping anytime soon.

Child Health Nurse just rang me and I asked her about the peeling and she said that you don't need to do anything, it's quite normal but if it's really bad(which DD2's seems to be) then you can go to the chemist and ask them for something to put in the bath to soften the water(but you must say it's for a newborn) or a cream to put on to moisturise the skin.

TJ - I've been having to wake DD during the day as well. 2 nights in a row she wanted to be up for a few hours. It'd made a huge difference and she's only taking about 30 mins to feed and change overnight now so we're all happier.

Freya - WOW! 4.7kgs! That's fantastic! DD1 wasn't that weight until she was a few months old(maybe even 4 months old).

MKS - I think I was tender after DD1 was born for about 2 weeks? So things should settle back down for you shortly.

I must get my groceries done, or else we'll have no food in the house!

Karice

23-03-2009, 22:54

:wave: hi girls - i found my way here

boy wrangler

24-03-2009, 08:55

The peeling is getting better here, although DH did have to rinse all the dead skin out of the baby bath yesterday :barf:

how are everyone else's bubbas sleeping? Archie did 6pm to 1am last night, I was amazed! DS1 was sleeping through at 10 weeks, but I can't remember him sleeping that long at 11 days! :fingerscrossed: it lasts!

have a good day ladies!

nae1709

24-03-2009, 10:22

Hi ladies, glad to hear everyone's bubs are doing well.

Sahara is good, thought we were going to have our first unsettled night last night due to a tummy ache. But nope it seems it could have just been an episode of cluster feeding during the afternoon. Surprising what things turn out to be, isn't it? She is still giving us between 3 - 4 hrs sleeps at night which is great. Hopefully in a few weeks it will be more like 6 hrs though, the midwife reckons.

She is a bit peely as well, it must just be something all/most newborns go through as she was a few days early so not overcooked. We're just keeping an eye on it & using some beautiful Jurlique baby moisture from time to time. I'm loving using all the organic samples I sent away for while I was pregnant. Haven't had to use any J&J products yet.

So we had another midwife appt & she is past her birth weight WOO HOO! She's 11 days today so she got there before the 2 weeks.

Oh we're booked in to have her hand & feet cast this weekend, can't wait. We're having a lovely framed set of her 2 hands, 2 feets, birth certificate & photo done. Thanks to my lovely mum, who is paying for it as a present that Sahara will always have.

Well I'm off to rest & watch Grey's Anatomy, hired seasons 2 - 4. I need to slow down as I've been pushing myself a bit too hard this past week and a half. I just feel so good in the mornings that I feel up to doing housework but by the afternoon I'm buggered. Plus my back is still getting better after all the odd positions & movements I had to do during the final labour & pushing stages. My stitches are healing well & I hardly notice their there anymore.

Will pop back in again soon!

kar

24-03-2009, 11:01

We had first cluster feeding last night - proper feed at about 4 then just couldn't get settled and did a lot of screaming and a lot of on off feeding until about 9.

Felix is definitely getting more unsettled and has been sleep resistant the past few days. I have gone back to writing some notes - makes me at least feel like I am trying to work out what is going on!

Felix was at 4-4.5 hr cycles overnight and during the day but the last week or so it has all been shorter - 3 hrs morning, 2.5hrs afternoon, unsettled period 4- 8.30ish then 3.5hrs overnight.
Has also found his lungs!! I am sure he has grown a lot this last week though so maybe that is why - the 3 wk growth spurt and now he is 4 wks (today!!!) he will revert!

Have had him in bjorn since 9am, feed - he wasn't interested in the cot or pram and I wasn't interested n screaming so bjorn it is. has slept well since. Well he is stiring now right on time for a 3 hr feed.

24-03-2009, 12:46

:hugs: Kar, sounds like a rough few days. Take it easy, rest when you can and stuff the housework, you being rested and able to function is far more important than having the dishes done or the floors cleaned.

Karice

24-03-2009, 13:47

Hi Girls,

Cadence is doing well, although I must admit I did the whole first time mum over protective and paranoid act last night. Turns out that she's got the snuffles and yes it is normal for newborn breastfed bubs to poo 12 times a day :laughing: I'll figure it all out eventually.

Cady's hands and feet are peeling also. I've just been using baby lotion.

trifecta

24-03-2009, 14:49

Hey guys :) My little man has been peeling too and I was advised to use sorboline lotion to moisturise his skin. I've been using Johnsons baby sorboline 2x day and it's pretty much all cleared up within a few days.

I'm feeling very proud cause he's just been weighed and has put on 160g in 4 days and is now 10g over his birth weight at 11 days old! I'm so happy, he loves his mummy's milk : ) He managed to poo all over the health nurse's scales for the second time too! lol
I've nearly gone through 100 nappies since we've been home which will be a week tomorrow. I'm so glad we brought the nappy wrapper.

We seam to have periods of cluster feeding, some days he will be unsettled and feed a little bit hourly, but generally he is in the 3hr cycle. Nights are pretty good, he's 3hr on the dot, feeds for about 20-30mins and straight back down. Although this morning between 1-3 he was a bit grumpy and just wanted to feed :o I'm feeling good though and getting at least 5-6 hrs sleep.

I've just booked flights to Brisbane for Easter so that will be our first big trip - we are taking the cat and a baby! I'm sure he will travel fine but I'm a bit paranoid about germs on the plane. Hopefully we sit at the back away from anyone else and I can just BF quietly.
Hum I've rambled on a bit, typing this with my sleeping angel on my chest, has to be the best feeling ever.
Hope everyone is having a good day.

eeyorethedonkey21

25-03-2009, 03:33

hey ladies i'm finally here. :yes:

just a quick post re: the peeling...nathan has it as well. i'm rubbing johnson and johnson baby lotion on him and i think we might have to give him a bath twice a day for a few days just help clear it up.

hope you're all well. :wave:

melbryan

25-03-2009, 07:56

Glad all the bubbas are doing well.
WE are peeling too and have a newborn rash quite normal though.
I am so badly cracked on the nipple front have given up on one side and then trying to comp feed. I was never really good at BF all 4 times and i have been to LC middies and docs maybe not really made for it I s'pose. Expressed yesterday and just plain water come out not even the colour of milk. Very sad I was. SO in some pain now but will get through it can't even rest her on my chest.
She is sitll an angel and is worth all the pain I am experiencing.
The boys are well, one is waking through the night which is hard can hardly get enough sleep.

Karice

25-03-2009, 08:31

is it possible for babies to overfeed and make themselves vomit??? Cadence keeps having unsettled periods where she'll have a solid feed but won't settle after as usuall, she keeps going back to the boob only to pull off after a few sucks...then she gets cranky and goes back on... i've been burping her to be safe but twice after this happening she's vomited all her milk back up.

i've noticed that if i take the boob away completely she seems to settle off to sleep... do u think it could be the smell of the milk making her think she's hungry????

she's gine through all 4 sets of cots sheets, all 3 mattress protectors, 3 blankets 5 towels and all of her clothes in 2 days... i just can't keep up with her!!!! she manages to pee out the side of the nappy, projectile poop across the room during nappy changes and vomit everywhere...going shoppimg today to buy more supplies hahaha nice excuse hey??? but it's true!!! DP gave me $100 coz im so frazzled trying to keep up with our messy angel:laughing:

mummyJ

25-03-2009, 08:45

They say that breastfed babies can't overeat...but I don't know!
Their little stomach pipe doesnt work that well yet, so it often comes back up in the earlier days...
If you feel like she's had enough and will settle better, then try stopping I guess.
I would recommend bibs and cloth nappies (as spit rags). Also if you put a cloth nappy where her head lies in the cot, then you shouldn't have to change the sheets each time - just the cloth nappy.
GOOD LUCK!!!

Karice

25-03-2009, 08:54

mummyj - cheers for the tip re the cloth nappy under her :D never even gave that a thought!!!!! Definately need to invest in some bibs today also hahaha. I've found that breast pads have all sorts of weird and wonderful uses. They seem to make light work of wiping up her mucky face during feeds, catching projectile milk when she pulls away and I've even used them as a sanitary pad coz i ran out the other day hahahaha

mamajess

25-03-2009, 11:09

Hi beautiful mummies....can I join in too?:)

My Etta Millie was born on Saturday. We put in an order for a sleeper and I think we got one! Etta is so gorgeous and her big sister Lotte and brother Tully are so very excited!

Looking forward to getting to know you all:)

lochie&coopersmum

25-03-2009, 12:10

Hey karice just thought id let ya know that it is perfectly normal for bubs that are breastfed to vomit abit afterwards. Cooper is doing the exact same thing and i asked the midwife about it and she said its fine :).

Its just that there is so much milk so they keep drinking and then their little bellies arent big enough to hold it all. We have been doing so much washing lately aswell and just recently went out and bought more supplies too lol. I found that sitting him straight up after a feed for 15mins or so and waiting til the milk has sort of settled then burping him after that time has kinda stopped the huge amounts he has been vomiting up, he still spits up abit and occasionally has a huge projectile vomit but it seems to have settled abit.

Hope that helped :hugs:

mks

25-03-2009, 16:11

Hi girls, have been missing for a while. Just seem to find it hard to find the time to post (although I am reading). Re the peeling, Ella has been peeling and I have been using moisturiser. It seems to be getting better. She spits up a bit after her feeds also. The last couple of days she has been having some tummy pains at night. With DS I used to feed him 20 mins on each side (he would have gone for longer if I had let him). This time I am stopping her after 20 mins on one side. I think any more and she gets pain and vomits. She certainly doesn't seem hungry - she wakes for a feed between 2.5 and 4.5 hours so that's fairly normal for a newborn. I am a bit worried she'll have colic though. The past 2 days she has been sleeping all day and awake a lot of the night!! I am VERY tired.

Yesterday we went to the shops for most of the day with mum (DS was at daycare). It was nice to get out and Ella behaved very well. We exchanged some gifts and I got some things in bigger sizes for when summer comes around again. I have been given so much pink in 000!!!! It is lovely though.

Ella was quite jaundiced when she was born so we went back to the pediatrician on Mon. She's good now though. It's been a busy week. Tomorrow and Fri I need to stay home and clean my house!!!

I'm really hoping we get some sleep tongiht cause dealing with a toddler as well isn't so easy when you are tired and grumpy!

I got a bill from my OB last week for a delivery fee. Did anyone else get that? Considering the dr didn't even make it in time to deliver... he was away and someone else came but she got there to stitch me up and we still got an additional fee of $1100 (on top of the $3300 management fee!). Hmm...

boy wrangler

25-03-2009, 16:45

mks, that sounds like a bit much to me! I'd be ringing them to check it out. I know our OB has the maintenance fee, but that covers everything, and if she's not on then one of the other OBs in her group delivers the baby and there is no other charge.

our first was a chucker, not "reflux" but what the dr and CHN called a happy chucker. so far archie hasn't had anything more than a bit of a "spill" after a feed but that is pretty normal. He's still a bit peely, i might have to get the sorbelene onto it.

hi to everyone, hope its a good night tonight for all the march bubbas (and mummas too!)

tee

25-03-2009, 20:02

hi ladies :) just thought i'd stop by to catch up. i don't have the energy for personals, glad to see everyone is doing relatively well though! it's great reading how everyone is doing.

as for me, i'm still really exhausted. i still have full time help and DP does night feeds - i sleep for 10 to 12 hours and wake up just as tired as when i went to sleep. but i won't carry on about me - i'd need three hours to whine. hahaha.

grace is doing well. stacking on the weight. she put on 750 grams in two weeks! we have in-laws here at the moment (i've had a neverending stream of visitors, it's so crazy, i'm so tired and i swore i wanted the first six weeks just for us, but after what happened, everything is topsy turvy). when they leave i'll be setting up her room. we were going to co-sleep for a few months but now i'm wanting to set her up and into her cot.

as for the sling question someone asked - i got a bubbamoe a few weeks ago and we both really like it. well, all three of us. DP uses it and loves it. I haven't had any problems with it. And Gracie always goes straight to sleep in it. It makes my lower back ache a little but not enough that I wouldn't use it.

MellyMumma

25-03-2009, 21:17

Hi Everyone :wave:

Glad to see you all enjoying motherhood!! I'm loving having my baby girl too!

Don't have much time to chat right now but wanted to offer some info to those suffering reflux. If you're bf try to get fennel into your diet its great for reflux babies. Also try sleeping them in their rocker so that they're sitting up a little but it also puts them in a position where their legs are elevated a little and it helps as well. Hope this info can help!

I took all 4 girls out shopping on monday for a few hours. Lets just say it was interesting! I've had larengitis since sat so finding it hard to get talking sounds happening! We're all sick at the moment too. Was hoping bub wouldn't get it but today she sounds a little sniffly.

Take care everyone and hopefully I can get on here a bit more often! Am also trying to find the time to do a birth story.

:baby::baby::baby:

kimberlee

25-03-2009, 21:24

Hi everybody!
Quick one from me - DD2 is doing great - settling into a routine about now - she'll be 6 weeks on Friday - I can't believe it!
Also means I'm starting to get my AF - I got it at 6 weeks with my first despite BF full time as well. I totally forgot but was feeling a bit yuck today and thought oh yeah - that's a familiar feeling and sure enough started spotting today - oh well.
We're going to our 6 week check ups early next week. That went by fast!
She past her birthweight the day we left the hospital and was up over a lb at the 3 week mark as well as grew 6cm?! I don't really think so - I think they just measured a bit slack at the hospital - so I'm curious to see what she's at now.
She's a dream but juggling my 2.5 year old who thinks it would be better to be a 2.5 month old is the challenge - she acts up whenever I start breastfeeding and tells me "mommy - I'm cwying" whenever the baby cries but she's back on track with her toilet training so I'm very happy and she loves her sister to death - she just gets mad at me for not giving her all my attention now but I can deal with that - hopefully she'll grow out of it soonish.
I love the phil and teds stroller now - I've got the little one in the back now and she likes it much more than being flat on her back - falls asleep in 30 seconds in that position as she was having a hard time the other way. Her neck control is amazing.
Anyways - off to do some housework now that everyone is alseep - yippee...
Have a great night.

eeyorethedonkey21

25-03-2009, 21:34

hey everyone

just a quick one wanna find out something....did anyone elses bub try and hold their head up on their own the day they were born and then the day after? nathan already is...:rolleyes: he's so much more advanced for a 2 day old then ds1 was at 2 days old. wonder if thats cos ds1 was kinda on pethadine due to me attempting to breastfeed him.

sorry for lack of personals i think the tiredness is finally catching up to me so gonna go catch some :sleeping: before nathan wakes up. he's been asleep for 2 hours now.

mks

26-03-2009, 08:05

Just thought I'd share what a good night we had last night. DD was crying between 8 pm and 10 pm - I gave her some colic relief drops though and eventually she fell asleep in my arms. She had fed at 7.30 pm. Then she woke for her feeds at 1.30 am and 6 am and she's asleep again now! Yay.. that's what we want every night.. I actually got 6 hours of (broken) sleep!! DS went to bed easily too.. please let this be the start of something good! Oh and I woke this morning to a knock on the door - a delivery from DH's cousin in Townsville - she sent a gift for Ella - 2 little outfits and a pink and white pram blanket. Yay!! I love all this pink!

Freya

26-03-2009, 08:13

Ee- Malakai was like that too within minutes of the birth his head was up, he is also almost rolling and has been since birth. He loves his tummy time and fully holds his head up to watch you. It's so hard to burp him because he moves his head everywhere to watch things lol.

We are having a really tough time at the moment, bubby screamed 9 hours straight the other day then 6 hours straight through the night (11-5am) then he did about 6 hours of screaming yesterday afternoon till he eventually fell asleep at about 10pm then woke at 12 and wouldn't go back to sleep till 3am. He just won't sleep because he is in soo much pain. I have tried so many things and nothing is helping. I might try and get him off to get some chiro. I am so exhausted and poor K is probably feeling so neglected because there I am only one person so if I am dealing with a screaming newborn I can't deal with him.:(

Good that you had a good night MKS. :)

26-03-2009, 08:27

:hugs: Freya. I wish I wasn't in so much agony 'cause i'd offer to come help.

I'm not feeling the best, its worse today too. I'm getting these pains shooting through my pelvic floor muscles, doesn't matter if i'm moving or not. I can't get to a gp(no-one to drive me), so i'm thinking of calling for a home visit today, just not sure how i'll go getting to the door to open it if i'm upstairs when they arrive. DD1 is at kindy today so at least i can rest up rather than running after her all day so :fingerscrossed: that helps.

melbryan

26-03-2009, 08:37

F- sounds very colicy to me last night Leah had wind and it was so hard for her to get off to sleep after about 3 hrs she went down and woke this morning about 5am.

Mks-when Leah goes down she sleeps for ages tooshe does give me a good break a night. She has had a couple of unsettled nights though. After about 2 weeks she has not slept as much though. They were born on the same day. All this pink I am going to swap some of mine too I think for abigger sizes when I can get out of the house.

Melly- I went to the shops with the boys on Friday for some photos and yes had a screaming baby and a wet toddler and 2 others who would not listen won't be doing that again for a little while.

Pretty tired but want to take the boys for haircuts today sometime depending on Leah really.

I did my scrapbook with all the photos last night so am happy I have some photos to show now.

Leah is doing well gave up Bf I know very early I have just had too much to deal with. I had an argument with my mum last night she just hasn't helped me at all and I told her I feel let down and disappointed with my family as strangers have helped me by making dinners and they have been no where to be found. I have asked for help but have had nothing.

tee

26-03-2009, 08:49

She had fed at 7.30 pm. Then she woke for her feeds at 1.30 am and 6 am and she's asleep again now!

That's how Grace sleeps, isn't it ace :D

Freya

26-03-2009, 09:28

Karice

26-03-2009, 09:32

:wave: Morning Girls

Cadence has gone back to sleep for her morning sleep. It's nice to have a few hours to be able to do stuff like have brekkie, read emails and have a shower hahaha the rest of the day its all gogogo

L+C'smum - I've started holding Cadence up on my chest during the middle of a feed and for a little while after. It seems to be helping. I'm a bit confused coz the middies at the hospital said that you don't really need to burp a BF baby, but she seems to do the BIGGEST belches when I pop her up there and rub her back??? Surely that's got to be helping her little tummy? For some reason, occassionally, we'll be coming close to the end of a feed and she just starts crying out of no-where. She's not the sort of bub that cries very much so i'm wondering if she's giving herself a belly-ache by trying to drink too much?

mks - Cadence was sleeping all day and then awake all night, it was driving me crazy. then for some reason one day she just changed. She has lots of naps during the day, feeds for longer but not as frequent and only wakes twice during the night for feeds and nappy changes. When she's awake now she's much more alert, we usually have tummy time, play with newborn toys or i read to her to try and tire her out so she sleeps hahahaha She loves story time :yes:

eeyore - :iagree:with the strong neck muscles thing. Cady did the same thing, she can lift and turn her head during tummy time and burping also

mks - how awesome is pink stuff? i've gone pink crazy :D

newme - i hope you feel better soon. I'd offer to drive you to the docs but i've only got one baby bolt in my car for the baby seats:(

Karice

26-03-2009, 09:40

Cadence is starting to get into a better sleeping pattern finally. And a better feeding pattern. She used to demand a feed every 2 hours round the clock but it seems to have slowed down to 4 hours (thank goodness!!!)

We've got an appointment with the child health nurse today, so i'm going to try to get ready for that.

Plus we have a house inspection tomorrow, the damned real estate won't postpone it for a few weeks either. I've tried telling them that we've got a newborn and I've had constant visitors for over a month, I need a chance to get back on my feet, and they said that they'll just let themselves in with their key if we don't let them in grrrrrr a-holes....

I had my GP appointment yesterday...I almost slapped the receptionist :laughing: I was booked for 1pm, I started to get ready aroud 10:30am...Cady wanted feeds, then I had to change her, then she puked everywhere so i had to bath her, it was about to rain so i needed to get washing off the line, then she wanted more feeds coz she puked, she wet around the side of her nappy so i had to change her AGAIN. PLus i needed a shower myself... I got to the GP's at 1:04...and the receptionist had the nerve to say "you're late, you were supposed to be here at 1 so you'll have to wait now" ARGH! It's ok for doctors to keep people waiting for hours but I can't be 4 minutes late? :hair:

Oh if anyone is near northlakes westfield, go to best and less coz they're selling 4 sleepsuits for $10!!!!!!

26-03-2009, 11:49

newme - i hope you feel better soon. I'd offer to drive you to the docs but i've only got one baby bolt in my car for the baby seats:(

That's so sweet of you karice! After I had a shower and rested up for a while in bed I'm starting to feel better. I can actually sit now without the pain so surely that's got to be a positive! I'll just keep taking it easy(though I'm soooo tempted to do a load of washing and wash the dishes!), but I'm going to force myself to rest today while DD1 is at kindy.

Karice - I would have been peeved at the receptionist too, that's pretty rude - you were only 4 mins late and a consultation should be 15 mins, so technically you still had 11 mins of your appointment left. Hope you didn't have to wait too long.

Mel - Don't beat yourself up over the BF. You gave it a really good go and perservered when a lot of people would have given up after a few days. You should be proud that you tried to keep going for as long as you did through the pain that you went through. It's great that you've got such supportive friends to help out, but I hope your family comes to and starts offering some help too.

Kimberlee - Sucks to have AF back so soon. I had it back really early with DD1 as well, I'm hoping I'll get a few months break this time, it really messed with my milk supply last time and I don't want that challenge this time!

MKS - Wow, great sleep! We haven't settled into a real sleeping pattern yet, but she seems to want to go to sleep about 9am each morning, regardless of if she woke up at 5am or 7am:confused:. But the rest of the day changes every day!

Eeyore - DD1 was like that, had a strong neck straight from birth. DD2 is so the opposite though, just happy to lay back supported and not much else. She only really does any neck movement when she wants a feed and starts head-banging my chest.

While DD1 is at kindy I've had the chance to clean out my email in-box - I had over 130 emails since the 10th:eek:, I got rid of over 100 of them so :smiliedance:.

Anyway, off to have some lunch before DD2 wakes(I can just FEEL she needs another feed, I hope it's soon!).

kar

26-03-2009, 13:13

Hi ladies :wave:

Newme, glad you are feeling a bit better but forget the dishes and have a rest.

Freya - wow, that sounds really tough, you are a wonder woman to deal with it all on your own. I don't cope with 1 hour of crying when I am on my own. I hope M is feeling better soon.

Ee - Felix was lifting his head around pretty much straight after birth too and throws it around a lot. He has been pushing up and looking around too. Given this is my first I have no idea if this is 'usual' (don't like the word 'normal'!) Probably helps that he has a small head :laughing:

We found that Felix's sleeping got much less regular after about 2.5wks. Went from 4-4.5 hr cycles back down to 3hrs. Given he has put on a kilo since birth and grown 5 cms (4wks) it is not surprising he has been hungry!
This is the equivalent of me putting on 20kgs in 4 wks, eek!

We have put his cot on an angle and he seemed to have more settled sleep last night once he got to sleep and was much quieter without lots of refluxy noises. Fed at 7.30, not interested in going down. Fed again at 9.30 and slept soundly through to 1.30!! Hurrah. Then went straight back down and slept until 5 then back down until 8.30. Very good night.

Then of course today he won't sleep except in bjorn or my arms but oh well.

Karice, the more I read the more I am loving Cadence for a little girl. Hmm, Felix and Cady - has a certain right (I mean 'ring') to it!

Mel, I hear you on the parents thing. Although I am having the opposite problem. I just want my mum to go away and leave us alone. She just called to check on me because I seemed tired last night. NO **** I have not had more than 3 hours sleep in a row in about 8 wks. Then whenever she comes over which is about every second day she acts all disappointed if Felix is asleep or upset and I won't hand him over for a cuddle. And whenever I say anything about him being unsettled or having a difficult day she responds with "yes but he is a perfect little boy he is an angel etc etc". I feel like she is having a go at me for not being euphoric 100% of the time.

And she never stops talking for one minute!! Argh. But she doesn't actually do anything. I think the problem is she comes over after work between 5 and 7 which is just the worst time of day. As I told her on the phone today.

ooh, sorry girls, that turned into a bit of a rant about me.

Karice

26-03-2009, 13:41

Cadence's belly button stump fell off in the bath today!!! :D I almost considered keeping it till i realised how gross that is...hahahaha how am i going to explain a husk of dried flesh in 10 years time??? This motherhood thing makes me do weird things...:rolleyes: ( I did get rid of it by the way...)

Gave the appointment with the child health nurse a miss...I swear the munchkin KNEW i was trying to get out of the house...she hates the pram and hates the car seat, absolutely cracks it when she's being put in, then we get moving and she falls asleep. She was soooo moody all morning when i was trying to get us ready to go...then i phoned the family clinic and said we won't make it (we were already a half hour late) and then she stopped whinging...she's been sleeping soundly ever since grrrrrrrrr oh well, at least i can get ready for our house inspection tomorrow

lochie&coopersmum

26-03-2009, 17:40

Thats weird that they said you dont need to burp bf babies i was told to burp him. If its making a difference then id keep going hun :) She probably is giving herself a belly ache poor darling, she sounds like she is doing the exact same thing as Cooper is and i asked the doctor bout it today and he said its all normal

Karice

28-03-2009, 16:24

yeah lots of burps seem to be helping keep little miss calm.

Also, has anyone had any troubles with the woolies select baby wipes? We used them for a few days and she started getting the worst nappy rash on her little bot :( we've stopped using them and just wiping her with water and paper towel and putting zinc cream on, seems to be clearing it up really quick...i think that the sore bot might explain the unsual grumpyness over the last few days...

kar

28-03-2009, 16:29

we use sorbolene and cotton wool unless really toxic poo then use wipes. no rashes and cheap.
also use paw paw cream when needed - clears everything at first sign of redness

bongos

28-03-2009, 21:39

Hello everyone! :)

Hope you and your bubbas are all doing well!

Sorry I haven't made it on here recently... I've been flat out and then DH had us offline for a couple of days while he dealt with a virus on his computer.

Karice - yeah, I agree with Kar on the use of sorbolene. I don't tend to use wipes at all for the first couple of months. I tried the WW Select wipes on my DS2 as a toddler and didn't like them. I've always found the Huggies Unscented Wipes to be the best for older babies/toddlers. I use sorbolene and tissues or cotton wool pads for nappy changes - seems to do pretty well for poo as well - I fold the tissue in quarters, squirt on some sorbolene, fold it over and warm in my hand for a few secs before using. Tip... with a poo I get 2-3 of these ready before removing the nappy so they are at hand. When I do start using wipes for nappy changes I always blot dry with a tissue before applying nappy cream. I like the paw paw nappy ointment too (Lucas brand, in the red jar I think). Covitol is also good (smells fishy but works really well). The best nappy cream I have used is one made by the Women's and Children's Hospital - only use this when I see any redness and it nips it in the bud. As an everyday nappy cream I use Amolin. Sorry for :ecomcity:..

On the burping... I do exactly what you do with Cadence. I always burp between sides and find that Lily is very comfortable being burped with her head on my shoulder. I alternate circular rubbing motion on her back with gentle patting. My DS2 was a bit of a chucker in the early weeks.. I also wondered whether it was because he was drinking too much at once as well, or whether his gag reflex was more sensitive. Cloth nappies are definitely very useful! Touch wood, Lily doesn't seem to spill as much as her brothers did, especially DS2 ... I have vivid memories of being covered in regurgitated breast milk at 3am, along with clothes, the sofa and bub. Thankfully this phase was outgrown in the first couple of months.

Have to dash to feed Lily now and give DS1 (who is sick at the moment) some panadol. Hope to come back later to do a few more personals.

Have a great night all!
Lisa :hugs:

kar

29-03-2009, 09:27

Well, after my rave reviews yesterday for sorbolene and paw paw cream Felix has a rash!
I actually think it is because I used wipes a couple of times Friday/Sat - once when out at a friend's house and a couple of times for massive poos.
Have resorted to the sudocream sample but will be straight back to the sorbolene/paw paw combination when cleared and no more wipes.
I have very sensitive skin and can only use sorbolene when it is flared up so thought we had better assume Felix would be the same.

A question re expressing. People who are doing it how long for, when, how much do you get?

I am finding that I get a big rush to start with and then it just stops and I can't get anymore. The most I can manage is about 50mls combined in one go and often it is less than this.
I also worry that expressing might take milk that Felix wants. Is this illogical? Does it work that way?
I know that it is best to express in the morning but there still doesn't seem to be much action.

trifecta

29-03-2009, 13:18

I've been using huggies wipes, I never even thought of using sorboline and cotton wool. I would much prefer to use something gentle, especially if it's just a fresh milk poo explosion and nothing too sticky! We haven't had any rash though and I've been using sudocream pretty much every nappy change - do you need it this often? I have some paw paw ointment also but again never really thought to use it as a barrier. I always feel bad when I use a cold wipe, especially when I put one over his willy to protect me from getting soaked (hum still happens!) and he gets a bit of a fright poor thing.

We had a huge power chuck yesterday morning, I've never seen anything like it. I had him in bed with me and was feeding him lying down (both of us) while we were dozing, then after about 20min I put him in his own bed and everything came back up. He got absolutely covered (as did everything else) but was gagging and coughing and went bright red for awhile and was screaming in pain. Poor wee man, I felt awful and didn't really know what to do. I just patted him on his back with him sitting up, but he kept arching his back as well. After about 5min he calmed down, but was still spitting up saliva and coughing : ( Do you think it was just that he drank to much while lying down, or could be the onset of reflux? He's been fine since and I've been careful not to let him guzzle to much to quick and we always have a burp halfway through. I think I have a fast flow, his face is always covered in milk and my boobs drip like a tap when he comes off. I really hope it doesn't happen again, I can't bear seeing him so upset.

My Mum went home on Friday and DH's Mum is leaving tomorrow, so we will be on our own for the first time since he's been born. I'm actually quite looking forward to our own family time, just the three of us. Will miss having lunch brought to me though and someone to watch Jacob while I hang the washing out etc...

Hope everyone is having nice weekends, my DH has been working through this own. We are having a photo shoot done on Wed, so looking forward to that.

Kar - I haven't started expressing yet, but I'm pretty sure it's meant to encourage milk supply so I don't think it would take away milk from Felix. One of my books says to express from one side in the morning, 30mins before baby wakes then feed from the other side to start. Then express again 3hrs later from the other side, and again start with the other side to feed. Gosh does that make any sense?? ie- express as much as you can from your R side. Wake baby and feed from L side upto 25m, then R side upto 15m.

mks

29-03-2009, 14:10

With the expressing I am still confused and this is my 2nd time. With DS I found I never got much. I just tried for the 1st time and got 30 ml from my left side which I fed with 2.5 hours ago. I don't want to use my right side cause Ella will be awake for her next feed soon and I need to feed her on that side. We'll see if I get into any kind of rhythm with it.

My 2 littlies have been alseep for ages now but my cousin is coming over soon so I have been tidying up and having a shower so didn't get to have a nap which would have been great.

I also use Huggies wipes. DS never had a problem with rashes (only a couple of times he was a bit red) but I use pawpaw ointment if I need to.

I am finding Ella very hard to burp and I think she has a bit of colic but the drops I bought her seem to have worked over the past 24 hrs so we'll see how we go.

I still can't believe we have ahd our babies!

Karice

29-03-2009, 16:52

hmmmm i've never heard of pawpaw cream before, do you just get it from the supermarket or do you need to go somewhere specific?

We've been using sudocream zinc stuff as a barrier which seems to be holding off on her rash getting any worse. It started to clear up really well but there is still a little red patch left on each butt cheek that just won't seem to go away :( I've found the viva paper towels to be quite good coz they are so strong. I can soak them in water as squeeze them out and then they are just like a wetwipe without all the chemicals. They don't tear or break apart or anything.

Does anyone have any advice why Cady is soooo windy??? Or at least how I can help her. She seems to be in a fair bit of pain. I've been burping her upright in the middle of a feed and just after, but still throughout the day she tenses up, goes bright red and gives a short scream in pain. I feel so helpless, coz i know she's in pain but I don't know how to help her other than rub her tummy.

oh yeah, and i got the 3am major chuck that someone was talking about last night...i just finished giving her a big feed, went to put her on my shoulder to burp her and got projectile vomit right in my face, in my hair, all down my front, all over the carpet EVERYWHERE her entire feed...then ofcourse she wouldn't settle for a sleep, was still hungry but had drank all my milk, we just had to power through for a few hours till I got some milk supply back grrrrrr it stunk, and tasted gross...

kar

29-03-2009, 19:58

paw paw cream is cheap as chips, you can get it from health food stores and most chemists. don't know if it is at the supermarket.

do you rub the sudocream in or just leave it on the surface??

sounds like the march bubs are getting chucky.

HnB - My friend's paed and my health nurse said that if your bub makes noises like they are trying to clear their throat or if they cough it means reflux not wind. if they are farting and pooing freely also not a wind issue.

HnB - that sounds like a sensible expressing plan, now if only i could predict when felix would wake up :laughing:

MamaKoala

29-03-2009, 20:57

Hi Ladies,

Just wanted to come in and say CONGRATULATIONS:smiliedance: to all the Due in March mummies.
I'm so glad everyone delivered safely and you all have your beautiful bubbas with you.
Have a fantastic first year with your gorgeous bubs:goodvibes:

30-03-2009, 09:00

Thanks MK - How are you going?

Karice i also use the papaw cointment. i got it online. a huhe tub for $11.95 + $3.50 delivery. it was delivered overnight and because it was my first order from them i got a $15 voucher for my next order plus a big welcome pack with a health magazine and a bottle of 100 multi-vitamins. i was so impressed, considering I pay $5-8 for the little tube that is 1/3 of the size. If you're looking in the chemist or the health food shop, keep an eye out for the 75gram tub instead of the tube. I also use it when DD1 has a fall and grazes herself.

Re Expressing - I haven't even gone there this time around, but last time I'd get a really fast flow to start with, then it'd tapper off. It takes a while to get the knack of expressing, there is definately a technique to it. I actually found last time that it was much easier for me to hand express than hand pump and I was ok with an electric pump. One of my best friends BF until her DS was at least 18mths, but never in that time ever worked out how to express. So don't be put off if you don't seem to be getting a lot of milk out just yet, it takes some practise and patience. Also helps to be relaxed and thinking of bub/looking at pics of bub to get the hormones flowing.

Karice - RE the wind, I've been keeping a real eye on what I eat. I've already decided that anything with cabbage or baked beans seem to upset Indie. It takes a while for things to come through to your milk. Ie the baked beans I had for lunch yesterday and Indie was windy and upset at bedtime. Baked beans was the only thing I'd eaten that was any different/new(for her) so I put it down to that. Also check that her attachment is good and that she isn't making a clicking noise when she's sucking(as that allows air in and bubs just swallows the air and then has to get it out again).

I didn't realise I've got such a big week on this week. I've got a friend coming over tomorrow, another friend wants to come on wednesday, another friend wants to come "sometime this week" and I have to get Indie to the gp for her post birth check-up which I haven't done yet. Also DH has something on thursday night for work, so DD1 will be coming home from kindy mid-afternoon so I'm getting limited for time to do things. Plus I didn't bother washing the towels and bedsheets on the weekend because I was going to do it today but it's raining:rolleyes:. So now I'll just have to change them all and wait until later in the week to wash them.

Oh well, better start getting organised and start by doing the groceries so that we have some food in the house!

mrslamotte

30-03-2009, 09:54

Hi Everyone,

I've been mainly still reading/posting in the due in March section. I don't know why since I wasn't even pregnant at all in March (hehe) but have now made the switch!

I'm not really a March Mummy but I was only 2 days off being a March Mummy so I'm gonna be a March Mummys crasher if thats ok with everyone :laughing:

Karice - I was reading a post you wrote a few days ago about using the breast pads for other purposes and I have to agree with you totally on that! I use them to clean up Cooper & Kayden lol but when I run out of them or at night when I seem to wake up soaked I end up shoving face washers done my top cause I'm lazy and can't be bothered changing the pads when they fill up during the night!

I am also finding that the washable breastpads are awsome and I wash them everytime I have a shower with shampoo so that I always have spare ones (incase I'm behind on the washing which I am atm :laughing:)

Kar - Brilliant idea using the cotton wool!!!! wipes are very expensive when you think about it! I think I will convert to the cotton balls also!

Bongos - Cooper is a little spewy also not the big chucks and not usually on me but on himself - so I was finding I was contantly changing his outfit (very annoying after awhile!) so I figured I have 50 million bibs (everyone seems to give you bibs as a gift!) so I put the waterproof bibs on him (the ones that have plastic underneath) then I only have to change lots of bibs - and I never seem to run out of them!

Hubnbump - I'm the opposite to you - I had a couple of days of help from MIL cause Shane had no more holidays left (cause of being in hospital for the week before giving birth - he came in to look after me & DS1) so I had help for 2 or 3 days and then she had to go back to Cairns and I have been on my own since (good and bad at the same time - but I definitely miss adult company!!)

But MIL is actually moving down here in 2 weeks and moving in with us for the first few months till she gets on her feet - which I'm really looking forward to. We used to butt heads all the time but now we get along quite well and she is really helpful without being overbearing!

MKS - I have decided that I will express this time round as well (I just have to start lol) but I was told that one of the easiest ways to do it is to do it after every feed - both sides (cause apparently baby never empties you as your body is constantly refilling)

My friend told me that she did tafe almost every night & her DH would feed her DD when she went so she would express after everyfeed (or most)

she would start after first feed in the morning express as much as she could then keep it in the container in the fridge then after her next feed express into the same container then put it back in the fridge and keep doing this all day - then at the end of the day she would put it into a disposable plastic sandwich bag. Because apparently breastmilk is ok in the fridge for 3 days (but she only ever kept it in there for 1 to be safe) so she would just keep adding to it all day (or she would put it in icecube trays)

So thats what I will start to do soon.

MamaKoala - Thank you - its good to see you still pop in - your very loyal - hope all is going well for you in your pregnancy!

NewMe - Which online shop did you get that deal thru?? that sounds like a really good deal - I don't have any paw paw oil but would like to get some!

AFM things have been good and hard - some days are better than others - I find the days are easy but the nights are a bit of a struggle for me.

Cooper tends to be quite clingy so he ends up sleeping in bed with me - which is ok except theres limited space (when I coslept with Kayden we had a kingsize bed and there was heaps of room! now were in a queensize and its heaps smaller!!!)

He doesn't like sleeping in the bassinet alone and I'm to tired to enforce it - so not really sure what to do cause I don't want it to become a habit for him!

Kayden had started daycare for 2 days a week which is a godsend! & MIL is moving in with us in a couple of weeks - so I am really looking forward to having the extra help not to mention the adult company hehe.

Well I gotta go now - we have Coopers one month doctors appointment - I can't wait to see how much weight hes put on - at his 10 day check up he'd already gained 300g! :smiliedance:

PS. I finally got a tandem pram yesterday - wahooooooo!!!!! will make walking to the shops a breeze now - gone are the days of carrying one and pushing the other in the single pram!

TuesdaysPrincess

30-03-2009, 10:10

Hi girls!

Finally got on here - for some reason BH was not loading on my computer for a few days, and I was having withdrawals! Thank goodness for Facebook hey!

Too many personals to catch up with, but just want to wish everyone a good nights sleep and hope our windy/refluxy babies start to settle down soon!

Question re: breastfeeding nappies and baby poo - Benji's poos are NEVER solid, they are pure liquid and soak through his sposies each time he poos. They are the bright bright yellow colour that BF poos are supposed to be, but there is never anything solid in there. Any suggestions? I can't go see the GP cos I can't drive yet (still have a bit of an infection in my c-section wound and it's still a bit painful, otherwise I would risk it), and I don't want to seem like a paranoid mum calling the paed for something like this.
I'm wondering if it might be a sign of an allergy to something I'm eating? He always seems to have terrible wind pain and never settles immediately after a feed - it usually takes about 30-45 minutes to settle him (and thats after the 5-10 chucks we get during that time). Would love any advice from anyone.

Anyways, hope we are all doing well today and talk soon.

Kyles

trifecta

30-03-2009, 10:44

Hey Kylie, I'm pretty sure the BF poos are meant to be bright yellow and runny, Jacob's are too. His favourite trick is to do a big poo explosion, wait till a clean nappy is on and then do another massive one! We get a few leaks (usually when we are out) and I'm surprised how far up his back they go!? I just make sure I change him regularly and things stay fairly well contained. So I wouldn't worry, my health nurse has assured me it's all normal.

He's been very unsettled this morning, been awake from about 3am with a short nap between 5-6:30 and has only just gone down now. He's crying lot's which is really unusual for him and the only thing that seams to settle him is the breast. I'm unsure if it's comfort or hunger at the moment and really don't want to get into the cycle of putting on the breast whenever he cries, any advice? Someone said you can't overfeed a BF baby, is this true?
I find mornings are the most difficult, seams to take ages to get a chance to get up, showered and dressed.
Urgh just heard a squawk maybe we will brave the heat and go for a walk....

30-03-2009, 11:06

thanks for the tip on the cotton wool balls and sorbelene - now i have a use for the litres of baby sorbelene we have accumulated and the bags and bags of wool balls i stocked up on for DD1. it also encouraged me to pull out my cloth nappies as i'd been using 'sposies 'cause i'd been unwell. I'm a bit baffled as to the wereabouts of the rest of my mcn's though - after reclaiming some of dd1's dolls i can only find 5:confused:. thank-goodness for terry flats! i'm actually surprised at just how well my mcn's fit Indie already. DD1 never fitted them until she was at least 3 months old but then again DD2 is wearing clothes that DD1 was wearing at kindy(she was at least 6mths old).

Karice

30-03-2009, 11:08

kyles - bf poos can be a bit runny but my doc said that its supposed to look "seedy" like its got crushed up nuts in it

TuesdaysPrincess

30-03-2009, 11:28

kyles - bf poos can be a bit runny but my doc said that its supposed to look "seedy" like its got crushed up nuts in it
Thanks Karice, that's the problem - it's so runny that it's basically like a wee but poo coloured, there are no solid or seedy bits in it at all.

I am a kid's nurse and have never seen a nappy like this before - but having said that I see sick kids and not well kids so this might be normal, but my DS1's nappies were never like that either.

Well, seems all our bubs are going through a growth spurt/cranky stage at the moment - at least I'm not alone!

30-03-2009, 11:32

Kyleigh - it might be easiest to phone your gp and leave a message asking them to call you back. Then you can describe it over the phone to them and ask their opinion of if you should be making the effort to get down their to get checked out. I'm sure he/she will understand given that you're recovering from surgery!

Karice

30-03-2009, 12:00

Just got off the phone from the Breastfeeding Association Helpline - got some great info RE painful wind with bubs, thought you might like to have a read at what the consultant said:

The issue is usally to do with fast let down, the foremilk tends to squirt out quite forcefully and as their tummys are so small it can go straight into the small intestine unprocessed. The fat in the fatty hindmilk is what is required to breakdown the lactose in the milk, and it's the lactose which is what causes the painful belly wind. The only way to fix it is to "slow" the let down process down. There are 2 ways to try to do this:

1) Try "posture" feeding, be reclined 3/4 of the way back so that baby is essentially feeding uphill, and gravity can't pull the milk down so fast. You will need to sit up towards the end of a feed to make sure that the breast is drained and that essential fatty hindmilk is getting to bub

2) Put baby to the breast, let the frenzy suck initiate let down, when baby starts to slow down into "suck suck swallow" pull baby away, place the palm of your hand (have a towel or something ready) on top of your areola and let the forceful milk squirt out until flow subsides and then put baby back on. This way, baby will be able to drink at a comfy pace instead of being forcefed by fast let down.

I was also told that for the first month or so, if you have big heavy breasts then you should try to hold the breast for the duration of the feed as bubby's mouth will not be strong enough to support the breast in her mouth at this stage, ad will end up swallowing a bit of air

Hope this helps girls

30-03-2009, 12:14

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: Thanks Karice!

tales

30-03-2009, 17:54

Just wondering, if anyone knows, how long do they have to feed to be getting the hindmilk? I mean, I know that's the bit they need, but no one ever thought to tell me how long she needs to suckle before I'm sure she's getting some..

lochie&coopersmum

30-03-2009, 18:06

Thanx heaps Karice

nae1709

30-03-2009, 19:30

Wow I love how supportive of one another we all are!!!!

Karice that was so wonderful of you to share that breastfeeding info you got from ABA.

Sahara is going well, had one semi bad night where she wouldn't settle in her bassinette (well actually I was just too tired to fight her) so she slept in a portable little bed in between dh & I for 5 hours OMG! But then decided to wake at 3 am & not go back to sleep until after 9 am. Thankfully it was Sunday & dh took her out to the lounge in her swing for a couple of hours while I slept. She didn't scream much really just was wide awake for 6 hrs straight. She has been pretty good a part from that night, she normally sleep & feeds well. Still quite short feeds but pretty often during the day. I think I need to be a bit more forceful in keeping her on the boob though. She is doing all the things she's meant to be doing though like gaining weight, the right amount of wees & poos etc etc.

We're off on our first family holiday over Easter & I seriously can't wait!

31-03-2009, 08:03

Tales I didn't think it was an amount of time they suckled to get the hind milk, I thought it was in the action of their sucking. Ie fast and furious sucks to start with gives them their fore milk to quench their thirst, then slower more rythmical sucking gives them the hind milk to fill their tummies. I'm probably wrong but that was what I was lead to believe with DD1.

Nae - Some bubs are more efficient feeders than others, and some like to comfort suck after their tummies are full anyway. It sounds like Sahara is doing well. DD2 feeds very efficiently at night(20mins total til I'm back in bed - so I get up, feed 1 side until she's content and comes off herself, do a nappy change then offer the other side again until she doesn't want anymore), but during the day her feeds take a lot longer. So timing the length of a feed isn't really an indication of how much milk they're getting so in your case I wouldn't be worried because it sounds like she's getting all she needs. I also found that when I feed more frequently during the day, we've dropped 1 night feed. I've demand fed the whole time, so it changes day to day depending on what she wants.

I've got to be quick, got to get the groceries finished and the house cleaned.

31-03-2009, 08:21

While I'm thinking of it, does anyone have any suggestions on what to wear for a wedding I've got on in 3 -3 1/2 weeks? It's a day ceremony with a night reception. I'll be BF DD2, so need something that's "easy and discret access", preferrably not pants sitting on my waistline because that's rather uncomfy(and not particularly flattering given my current belly "fat reserves"). As the reception is at night, I'll probably want to be able to adapt it with a jacket or shawl for warmth. Oh and I don't want to spend a fortune, because I'm already spending a fortune on the gift and I don't have a fortune to play with.

Freya

31-03-2009, 08:27

Tales, the fore milk is the watery kind of milk and hind milk is alot more creamy. There is no specific time to feed as all babies suck differently and our flows vary. As long as bubs isn't have green poos then you are doing great. If you do worry then express a bit of the fore milk out before feeding bubby.:)

Just got to do some things then will come back and update you on the hell that is going on here!:dizzy:

Karice

31-03-2009, 10:32

quick one from me - dp picked up some "infants friend" from the chemist, its heaps good. cadence isn't screaming in pain today so i would recommend it to anyone suffering from painful wind. plus i tried all those aba tips and we've gone back 2 the football hold for feeds

kar

31-03-2009, 10:53

Karice - my step MIL gave me the same advice re posture feeding last night- I was about to post the precise same suggestions - and it has worked this morning - no screaming at all, not leg kicking, no vomitting or red face and he has gone down in his cot without protest.
The feed took much longer which I think is a good thing as Felix is a guzzler.

Newme - deep V-neck dress and shawl? show off those big boobs draw attention away from belly.

Kyleigh - Felix has some pretty liquid poos at times, I haven't been worried and his weight gain is excellent.

NAE - I put Felix in the bed when he is hard to settle.

Karice

31-03-2009, 11:53

slight rant warning - need to get it off my chest...

ok so yesterday was a really tough. Little miss was screaming in pain all day, I didn't get any sleep but still I managed to have the house tidy and dinner was ready for 6pm for when DP got home.

DP walks in the door and I surprised him with "dinner's ready honey" he gave me a quick kiss hello, scoffed down his dinner and then...buggered off onto the computer!!!! I'm still left with a cranky baby and all the mess to clean up and on my own again.

I put Cady to bed so we could talk and he said he was really sorry for being so ignorant, ungrateful and selfish. He came back down and spent some time with me and cady, gave her a bath etc...

Then come 10pm i was tired, i had dozed off on the couch and I woke up to him in the other room on the computer again grrrrr he said, go get some sleep, i'll do the washing up.

DP wakes me up at 2am to feed Cady and the dishes still aren't done! He says he's going to get up early to do them. He hasn't been to sleep yet, and he says that he's going to get up in 3 hours time to do the dishes...?

He left for work this morning and they still we're not done, and now I have the breakfast mess to clean up also...:hair: I said to him that I would rather he didn't say he was going to do them if he wasn't actually going to coz it just makes my day harder.

Am I being unreasonable? or emotional? I'm not sure if the lack of sleep is just making me really irritable about little things or if I am justified in being angry about that... Plus it's soooo out of character for Lee to be like that, maybe he's tired also and just not thinking clearly?

Sorry girls, rant over

kar

31-03-2009, 14:01

Completely fair enough IMO. DP probably is tired too, so he should go to bed earlier!
When Rich says he is tired I do say to him that he could go to bed before midnight then it wouldn't be an issue..

So far so good with posture feeding, although Felix is feeding every 2.5hrs - think he is not getting as much down each feed which is probably good. Not overfilling his belly. And not exhausting himself with screaming.

Katieflutterby

31-03-2009, 15:13

Hi girls,

This is the first real chance Ive had to post on here again since the birth, but Ive had a quick read and I love all the great info you guys are providing, its really helpful.

I wondered how often your bubs are awake, and what you do with them when they are awake? When Eve is awake, I sort of dont know what to do with her. Ive tried some tummy time on a playmat, and the bouncer, and reading to her, but she doesnt seem to like it. She is crying a fair bit, I can only feed football hold because its the only way that works with my large chest.. we had some problems attaching in the hospital resulting in me with very very sore nipples, but its ok now we have the positioning sorted.

My dog has been good with Eve, but she is moping around looking very sad because she is getting less cuddles, she is a master at making me feel guilty.. :(

So everything is going pretty well, Im just worried Im doing all the right things for Eve. It was my DHs first day back at work yesterday, and I spent most of the day crying :( I just hope Im doing everything right... I didnt expect to feel so unprepared, Im the most prepared person ever, yet I still feel like I could have done more to be prepared.

Karice, I hope you are feeling better :hugs: I would be mad too, I dont think you are being unreasonable.

Hi Kar, Newme, Freya, Tales, Nae Lochie&coopersmum and everyone else xoxox :hugs:

trifecta

31-03-2009, 15:58

Karice - I would be pretty upset too if I had all last nights dishes waiting for me the next day. Is there something on Lee's mind that he's trying not to let on that's bothering him? I'm in bed by about 8:30! I have to get in a few hours before Jacob wakes and the 3hr night time cycle starts.

Katie- I'm sure you are doing everything just right, new babies really don't need alot of stimulation so don't panic, it sounds like you are doing a wonderful job. Every day will be different and the first day on your own will always be difficult, don't be so hard on yourself. I had my first day without any grandparents yesterday and Jacob cried most of the day and just seamed to want to feed all day. I was exhausted, but today he is back to been a dream. You will feel more confident as each day goes by, but don't hesitate to ask for help either.

Kar- I'm glad Felix seams to be feeding better - happier bub and Mummy.

Newme- I've got a couple of breast feeding tops which I've found to be really useful, no tricky pulling things up or down and keeps the belly covered. Maybe you could get one that you could dress up with a nice skirt and some jewellery? You can wear it afterwards to. I think most maternity shops sell them, egg in southbank has some nice stuff and there maybe be some sales on summer stock.

Jacob has had a good day today after yesterday's crying all day. He's feed, slept, pooed and peed like he should! Except when we went out to the shops again and didn't want to know about his pram. Lucky he's so small that I can carry him in one arm and push with the other. He doesn't really like his car seat, he's so tiny in it and kinda gets swallowed by the straps and buckles poor thing. Hopefully he stays happy (or asleep) for our photo's tomorrow.
Hope everyone is having a good day with their precious bubs.

Jeca

31-03-2009, 16:23

Hi girls,

Last time I wrote a big post to put in here my computer froze and I lost it so we'll see how we go!!

Katieflutterby - I'm still waiting for Miss M to wake up a bit, but when she is awake I put her on the playmat, or in the bouncer and the boys show her toys and books and talk to her! It's helpful to have built in baby entertainers LOL!! She is only awake for 45 mins to an hour and once she's had a feed and a cuddle there's only about 20 mins to have a good look around. She loves going outside and looking at the leaves on the trees though.

NewMe - finding an outfit for a wedding when BF'ing is hard isn't it. I second kar's idea of a deep V necked dress. How are your aches going now? Have the doctor's been able to tell you what's going on?

Is anyone else still bleeding? It's 12 days and it's still fairly heavy and very red, not changing to pink or brown. I am thinking I should go back to the GP and have a chat - what do you think?

I took Miss M off to the osteopath this morning as she seems to have mild reflux. She's slept since we got home so I guess I'll have to wait and see how she goes when she's more awake. I go back for another appt next week.

Ok, must dash, trying to convince DS2 to get up from his nap, but he just wants to sleep and sleep!!!

Brisbane girls, let's get a date for our meet up - I think we have to do it via PM though don't we? I think a Thursday was the consensus though wasn't it? I'll PM Karice, NewMe, tracyselena - anyone else interested?

Karice

31-03-2009, 16:31

newme - im in the same boat at the moment, we've got to go to DP's mums wedding on the 18th, got no idea what to wear either...I'm hoping to find a dress that has straps that "tie up" rather than the ones that are stitched on. Does that make sense?

katie - i usually just read a story to Cadence or sing songs and stuff. I think she enjoys the stimulation from seeing my face and hearing my voice more than anything to be honest. I also find the football hold the better feeding position, but I find she gets irritable during the day when its hot, and I usually find it hard to get comfy for her big feeds.

hnb - Lee's been a bit out of sorts for a while. I'm not sure if its the shock of being a Dad or if its financial stress or lack of sleep or a combo of everything. He loves her dearly but he still gets all teary eyed when he watches her sleep, he says that she looks so beautiful it breaks his heart...are all men like this with their daughters?

mummyJ

31-03-2009, 16:35

hey lovely Marchies!!

Sorry i haven't posted for a bit...have been following. I was at a conference with our little girl Thursday - Saturday. She was perfect!

Katie - I doubt you could have done more prep...It's a learn-as-you-go thing. I remember having read a million books before DS was born and still feeling completely unprepared!

Jeca - 12 days on should still be ok for bleeding. A lot of people bleed all the way up to 6 weeks. I usually stop at about 4 weeks...Mine has stopped just before 4 weeks again.

Karice - I think its reasonable to be annoyed!! totally...

Newme - I have a wedding on Saturday...Was just figuring out what to wear. I will probably wear a halter neck dress...feeding will be more interesting, but at events I tend to cover up a bit more anyway. An easy option is just a nice skirt with a plainish top.

We are going to Forster for 2 nights which will be nice since the fam has been soooo flat chat since she's been born. The ILs have a unit there and its on the way up to the wedding we have on Saturday.

Leila is so good...i can't believe her. She is a textbook perfect bubba. I feel very very blessed. She feeds 3 hoursly in the day and takes 30 mins for both sides with a nappy change. She sleeps from about 8pm - 2.30am and then feeds and sleeps again until 7am. Loving it!!

I GOT MY FIRST SMILES!!! SOOOOO GORGEOUS!!!! She was 4 weeks yesterday...almost one whole month...I cant believe how quickly she's growing up!

31-03-2009, 17:25

Just a super quick one as DD1 has decided to sit on my lap.

TS, Jeca and Karice - Thursday is a winner for me. I'm even game to give this thursday a go if we can organise it in time.

Thanks for all the tips on what to wear to the wedding. I'll have to have a look around but I think the suggestion for a BF top would work well(I'd feel more descret).

Jeca - I'm on day 21 and still bleeding. It's only light but it's still there. If you are worried it won't hurt to get checked out. How long did everyone else bleed for? I know it was only 5-7 days with DD1 but I wasn't worried that we're still going at 3 weeks now - should I be?

Got to run and get DD1 her dinner then :sleeping:

Karice

31-03-2009, 18:16

im on week 3 and still bleeding a little

thursday sounds awesome, im happy to fit in around everyone else as i don't have other kiddies to organise as far as times go

Jeca

31-03-2009, 19:18

Thursday this week sounds great! DH is still home so I'll only have Millie!!

LivingINhope

31-03-2009, 21:04

Kar � What is this posture feeding you adopted�I wish my little man would sleep he wanted to feed 3 hourly overnight last night and threw up every where this morning.

Karice � My DH is a bit like that at the moment, he gets crabby when DS2 is up all night cause he will be tired (he�s of work at the mo) cause he wants to do stuff the next day and go to the gym�let me tell you I get a little ****ed. In saying that he does cook and clean a lot right now when he goes back to work next week though I bet it will be a different story.

Katieflutterby � at this stage overstimulation can happen really easily. Young bubbas enjoy singing, talking and seeing your face. The stuff you are doing is for when bubs is older, but it never hurts to try. I just wanted to say its normal to feel overwhelmed it�s a big shock having something rely on you 24/7, go easy on yourself.

Your baby should be up for 1 hour and sleep for 2-3 hours�well it depends but that�s what they say. I had attachment problems also and ended up with infected nipples and mastitis I feel ya! Actually they were pretty hopeless at the NPH I think. As far as feeding goes I had a lactation consultant with DS1 and you do what works for you, if you are unsure the ABA is fantastic.

Hubnbump � Lucius is not that keen on his car seat or pram either he has a big protest when he�s had enough. Hope Jacob sleeps better for you today

Jeca � They say you should not have heaps of red blood after the first week, but then others say after the first 2 weeks. If you soak a pad every three hours they say you need to see someone, I think it would not hurt to get checked.

MummyJ � sounds like Leila is a good bubba, enjoy your family holiday.

Newme � I actually made a dress for my friends wedding when I had DS1 it unbuttoned underneath so I could feed. It had a princess line bodess so the division under my bust looked like part of the dress design. Good luck with the search.
____________________________________________
This is actually my first time in here I figure bar Missyky we are all just about done having our babies so time to change over.

Lucius was up 3 hourly all night and kept waking before that and I had to stretch him out. Stretching him out is so much better for his belly although he had a massive throw up this morning but it was after a greedy feed. I have been exhausted all day and rested on and off.

I had my ENT appointment today I broke down when I got in there and he was explaining the things that could have caused me to loose my voice for so long. I think the guy had no idea how to deal with me...so turns out I have pre-nodules on my voice box and with some speech therapy my voice will come back. So :smiliedance:its not because the cancer has returned, I have an appointment with my endocronologist next week and hopefully he can get my thyroxine levels right now. I have been very high which makes it hard to sleep and gives me heart pulpitations, but I have been out for over 9 months now so its an ongoing saga. I wish I could choose another specialist I feel very looked over but there are non in the hunter so I perserver.

Well I am off to have a nap before Lucius next feed between 12-1am, have a good night:D

kar

31-03-2009, 21:04

Katie I am sure you are doing fine!! I just sing stupid songs to Felix all day - not actually even songs, just really a running commentary on what we are doing set to some tune that pops into my head, he does look at me like I am completely mental sometimes :laughing:
I haven't tried reading or toys really. DH does wave some bright toys near him and he follows them with his eyes. mat time hasn't worked for us yet - Felix doesn't like it.

My dog is still pretty mopey although he seems to have decided Felix is OK - he runs to the cot when Felix cries and if I don't come he runs and finds me then runs back to the cot - cute!

BTW - when I say cot I actually mean bassinet.

HnB - glad today treated you better, must have been the day for a break! Felix's only tears today were from 7.30 to 8.30.

JEALOUS of you all meeting up!

OK, I am going to bed. No more internet.

kar

31-03-2009, 21:10

LIH - posted at the same time. It is when you feed with you lying down on your back/in a recliner chair and them on their tums so they feed 'uphill' to slow down the guzzling and to slow down the fast let down with gravity. It is like baby led attachment after birth.
I let F have 10 mins of normal style at his 6pm feed and we had reflux.

Such great news re nodules (well, in context of course). You must be feeling relieved.

01-04-2009, 08:11

LiH - I'm so glad you got good news from your appointment - what a relief! Oh that dress sounds nice, but I'm a hopeless sewer:o. The girls in DD1's birth group suggested a maxi dress, so I'll have a look around tomorrow.

Jeca - I forgot to say last night that thankfully the pains are all gone. I couldn't get to the gp on friday so I just rested up and felt a lot better. Probably just my bodies way of reminding me to take it easy.

Kar & Katieflutterby - Our dog was mopey when DD1 first arrived, but now they play together really well. Every morning she gets up and when he hears her he gets up too and she takes him to the back door and opens it up so he can go outside. It's their little routine. When she was first born he used to sleep under her cot. It was so cute:bee:. He's not at all interested in Indie yet, has had a few sniffs but just goes back to playing with DD1.

Katie - It's normal to feel overwhelmed, it's such a huge change from full time work to being a SAHM. I felt so lost when DD1 was born, in hindsight I overcompensated by going out to the shops pretty much every day just because I constantly felt like I *had* to be doing something. It took me quite a while to realise that there's nothing wrong with sitting at home doing "nothing". I still struggle with the concept, except now I just make sure I do at least 1 "chore" each day to make me feel like I've achieved something.

Well the lovely 1 feed per night didn't last. But it was only 2 feeds last night so I still can't complain. Although I didn't sleep the best. DH and I sat up until 9:30 playing monopoly(until I got sick of playing and lost on purpose just to end the game!), then I was so engorged all night. Even this morning after Indie's feed I was still engorged so I surrendered and hand expressed just enough to get rid of the lumps. But now I'm left with some EBM and I have no idea what to do with it. I don't intend on using bottles, so it'll go off in the freezer before it gets used. It's only a little bit so I guess it's no big deal if it goes to waste, it's just a shame when it's such liquid gold!

TuesdaysPrincess

01-04-2009, 09:23

Hi girls!

Just popping inquickly to say hi while DS1 is watching In the Night Garden and DS2 is sleeping. Having a girlfriend over today with her son who is 20 days younger than DS1, so they'll have a great time together.

Was definitely keen for the Brissie catchup, but can't make it for a while because I'm still not allowed to drive post c-section. I probably could, but my insurance won't cover me and I really don't want to risk it. Bugger! Definitely count me in for the next one.

Am off to call the MCHN to organise a home visit for this week re: DS2's poos. They are full of mucous now and there has never been any solid parts in them at all, and his reflux and tummy pains are pretty bad, so I want to get him checked out. DS1 had bad reflux and was on Losec for ages, but we delayed starting him on the meds due to me not wanting to give him the meds, but I won't do that this time around. If he's got reflux, bring the meds on!! I've also cut all of the dairy out of my diet to see if that helps DS2's bowels and colic pain.

re: bleeding, I'm 3 weeks post c-section today, and still have occasional bright red bleeding, but only happens when I overdo things, like lift my very heavy toddler! I don't think it would hurt to get it checked out, but I'm sure you'll be fine.

Hope everyone is well and getting some sleep!!

kar

01-04-2009, 09:29

Newme I admire you for not intending on using bottle at all. I so agree in theory and would like to do the same but 5 wks down I just don't see myself coping without a break.

LIH - I also meant to say that Karice did a good post on ABA advice re posture feeding and expressing off foremilk yesterday.

Well, as for us, Felix SLEPT FOR 5 HOURS last night! And I mean slept, not this feed to wake cycle. He only had one upset period from 7.30 - 8.30 when I gave him a top up and he went to sleep then I went to sleep at 10.15 and woke at 1.45! Only issue was that he was harder to settle than normal because he was awake, but we got there before 3 so not too bad, well, I got to sleep and left him to his moaning and snuffling and then we woke up at 5.45!!
So we had a 5 hr sleep block and an 3hr. Then he went back to sleep in bed with me from 6.30 to 8.30.

As you may have noticed I am a little bit excited (oh and has been back in his cot since 10am)! I will definitely be persevering with the feeding method.

My boobs were huge and sore too Newme, and leaking all over the bed but that's OK....

MummyJ sounds like Leila is giving you a real treat. Felix is really trying to smile, we get lots of coy little grins and he smiles with contentment when he is going to sleep, we are just waiting for the first look straight at us and smile.

kar

01-04-2009, 09:32

Kyleighb, sounds like a good idea to get bubs checked out. Mucous doesn't sound good.
If Felix's reflux gets worse we are definitely going to start medication, if recommended by doctor. I have heard way too many horror stories to persevere. Our MCHN also said they can go off their milk if it gets too bad because they associate it with pain.

Karice

01-04-2009, 09:59

KyleighB - I hope is ok, let us know what the doc says. WOuld be awesome to catch up at the next meet when you're feeling a bit more up to it. Make sure you rest when you can.

Kar - congrats on the good nights sleep! Makes such a difference to the next day I reckon.

LIH - great news on your voice! Really happy for you sweeti :smiliedance:

AFM - having a bit of a tough few days, I think that maybe my "baby blues" were a bit delayed? I don't know why, but at the start Cadence was feeding really well, was attaching well, I was comfy and now we seem to be going backwards. We can't seem to find a position that we both like anymore and she always seems to be having only half feeds coz she falls asleep after 5 or 10 mins and then I can't get her interested again. Very frustrating... Plus last night, she finally had a full feed only to explode-vomit everywhere and then I had nothing left to give her so she was really hungry for a while. I kept trying to feed her, looking back I probably should have just held off for an hour or so to get some supply back. In the end after 4 or 5 hours of her screaming at me we ended up giving her some formula (bad i know...:() which she guzzled down at 11pm and then she slept soundly until 4:30am this morning!!!! We've never had such a smooth night. I'm kind of regretting giving her the formula in a way coz it was all just too easy and I find myself tempted to give in :(

Dp kept asking me last night if "i'm ok coz i don't seem it" I think I need to talk to him tonight and explain that no, im not ok. I feel really abandoned right now, I'm home on my own looking after this tiny person, ive got no idea what im doing and then he comes home and I have to fight him tooth and nail to get his butt off the computer and help me out. He changes her when i ask, but its draining having to fight for his attention and ask him to do things, i need him to just do it without being told every 5 mins. Plus i don't enjoy still being on my own in the other room when he's home, i need his support, even if its just him sitting with us. sorry girls, i know we're all in the same boat, argh, i'll shut up now

tales

01-04-2009, 10:23

:hugs: Karice. Your DP's behaviour is really not good enough, and do not, under any circumstances feel bad for feeling the way you do. It's most definitely not "nothing" that you're feeling and whether it's 'just' the baby blues or not makes no difference. You definitely should talk to your DP before you are in danger of being truly overwhelmed. Don't forget also that your health care providers are there to help you, too. Most of them take a new mother's mental health very seriously so don't be afraid to go and talk to them if you truly feel you aren't coping, hon. Big hugs and I hope things improve for you! :hugs:

kar

01-04-2009, 11:45

Karice :kiss: DO talk to DP before you get overwhelmed and end up really angry with him.
MIght be delayed baby blues, bur really sounds like a completely rational response to the situation you find yourself in.
It is HARD (and somewhat mind numbing) being home alone with a baby all day, you need someone to talk to at the end of the day. And I so agree about the "please just do some things don't make me ask" feeling.

Also, though, as hard as it is try to let go a little - it really doesn't matter if the dishes are still sitting there.

Hmm, Felix is moaning and groaning up there but I plan on leaving it until it is actual yells. I often look overnight to discover he is actually asleep just groany.

Don't feel guilty tr FF - what is done is done, just think about whether the right thing for you and bub is to persevere with BF or swap, or a combination.

Ok, squawking now

LeeJ

01-04-2009, 12:04

Hi girls,

Heres a quick read of how things went down for us:

um.... thur night, induced, gel, things not great, still high and long, and bubs head still high.
fri, 3am, contractoins getting strong,
5.30am, lots of blood loss, with clots, possible placenta pulling a way too early, so head to hospy.
contractions are 2 mins apart by now,
at 7.00 get checked, 3cm, not effacing well, still high, they break my waters, and 15ml syntocin(drip)
contractions full on, they said they were as strong as they could be really, so no more syntocin, offered pain releif many times, never felt out of control to need it.
Used breathing, and heatpacks for pain releif till 11.40, when doc checked again, midwife sure i was in transistion and at any time pushing was coming.
Checked me, still 3cm, in further down, still not effacing, bubs heart rate was droppiing with each contraction. also said bubs head seemed to be stuck.
So, we talked over options, he was sure bubs could not come on his own.

So, emergency c-section.
the 1/2 hour waiting for the spinal was hideous, i had lost ALL concentration, i was all over the place, truly horrible.
By 12.47pm, fri, he was born, cord wrapped round the neck three times, placenta had come away, and wanst in great shape.

He had his eyes open, VERY alert in every way, pink, strong, fantastic.

I feel it all went well, they could have pushed a c-section before labour, but they knew i wanted to try, they intervened at the right time, he was not in distress when he came out, but another hour, and it all would have been different.

I was up the next day, and able to do everything on my own (except get out of bed) by sunday morning. im healing fantastically, they said i was getting around heaps better than any of the vaginal birth ladies, so that was good to know!

Unfortunatley, breastfeeding hasnt worked, still waiting for milk, so he went to formula a day and a half ago, much happyoer baby. the first 2 days were HORRIBLE, obviously, he was soooo hungry, and not getting anything, so he just screamed, was a tough couple of days, i tried sheilds, pumping, everything! :( so they topped him with formula, OMG, what a difference. i was starving my poor boy.
We're all still learning, and it is hard, but at least i got sleep last night!!! ive managed about 8 hours since he was born before last night :( so all pretty stressfull, but we are getting better.
So, im now a c-sectioned, bottle-feeding, (last night) dummy using, mummy.... hmmm. that wasnt the plan:rolleyes: such is life eh.

I was able to come home yesterday, we're still getting the hang of things. We thought maybe we had come home too early last night, when between 10-12, he just wouldnt settle, he was just screaming. oh, it was HORRIBLE, we didnt know what to do. so by 12, we tried the dummy, and that was enough to get him to sleep. he slept from 12 till 4 (:eek::smiliedance:), woke, had his feed, alseep by 4.30 (tried a new way of feeding, worked great to help with his wind), then slept through till 8am. i went in to check on him at 8.15, he was just laying there, looking around, oh, such a good boy! so i actually got nearly 6 hours sleep YAY!!!!!. daddy gave him his bottle, and at 9, went back to sleep, he is still sleeping now, so waiting for him to wake up!

SO, feeling good about things today, got lots done this morning, so we are all caught up!

look foward to reading how everyone is going, and talking to you all soon!:hugs:

01-04-2009, 12:12

Just quick,
:hugs: Karice, you have my number and don't hesitate to call if you want someone to talk to

lochie&coopersmum

01-04-2009, 15:38

Hey all

Havent been posting but have been reading every post :)

Karice - ive had a few days here and there of the so called baby blues. Its kinda hard to deal with everything and not have that bit of support at the end of the day that you need.

Df has been really good lately but saying that he has also started playing stupid world of warcraft again and reckon he cant help when he is in the middle of fighting or some **** :thumbsdown: makes me very cranky.

Lochie came home on monday with a bad chesty cough and a runny nose and i have had a sore throat and runny nose since wednesday last week. So of course now Cooper has a cold :(. He is chucking up phlegm (not alot), coughing, can hardly breath through his little nose and didnt sleep well last night. I reckon i got 4 hrs of sleep last night cause he just wouldnt go to sleep in his basinett, he wanted to be held. Think tonight is gonna be worse as he sounds alot worse then he did last night poor thing. Have taken him to the doctor and its only a cold.

Anyway have a good day will chat to ya all later :hugs:

Karice

01-04-2009, 15:47

Thanks so much for the encouragement girls :hugs: you are all awesome.

So i dragged my butt down to see the child health nurse today, basically she said that I could put out a small fire with my nipples :laughing: I've got really really really strong let down aparantly, combined with massive heavy boobs and an abundant milk supply, the equivolent for us would be like trying to have a drink of water out of a hose with the tap turned on full blast...oh dear...

So, no more football holding coz Cadence will probably choke...no wonder she's been fussy...

Here's the new technique for super let down flow mummies:

The new hold we're trying is sort of a cradle hold except that her belly must be flat tight against mine and she needs to be high in line with my boobs. To attach, I'm supposed to hold her around the neck and not by the head so she can throw her head back and let herself off when the super flow kicks in. Need to line nipple up with her nose, she'll open up her mouth really really wide and attach herself chin tuckedi n and everything (i didn't believe it till i saw it...) Then, its the same thing as what ABA said, wait for the let down (except with this hold she pulls off herself) and then apply pressure with the palm of my hand to let out the super flow until it slows down, then continue the feed. When she gets dozey, take her off, burp her, if shes still dozey, try changing her nappy etc... offer boob again. If she doesn't open up wide on her own then she's not hungry, she's just using me as a dummy. Sounds so damned easy doesn't it??? I WISH!!!! But in all seriousness, she was extremely helpful.

The other thing she said was that the worry with super let down mummies is that the baby does not have to work very hard to get the milk and you can be at higher risk of blocked ducts and mastitis etc... coz bub will not drain boob properly. It's important to have some bra free time at some point in every 24 hour period to avoid this.

Hope this is helpful

PS - congrats to tommo, glad your both doing well good to see you in here :yelclap:

bongos

01-04-2009, 19:11

Hi everyone!

Hope you�re all having a good week. :hugs: Big hugs to all the mums who are having a bit of a tough time at the moment.

I had hoped to jump back on soon after my last post to do some personals but have found it almost impossible to get the time to come on. We ended up having 2 sick kids on the weekend. DS1 came down with a cold and fever on Friday and then on Sunday morning at 5am Lily woke for her feed and was very snuffly. So our little princess has her first cold - I know that kids need to get these things to build their immunity but I was hoping it wouldn�t be quite so soon. DS1 and DS2 haven�t had a cold for ages so I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later, and Lily probably caught it from DS1 before we even knew he had it. On Sunday I had Lily in the baby bjorn pretty much all day - she was more settled and happiest sleeping in there and fed every 1.5-2 hours (at least her appetite was still good!). Lily seems to be happiest sleeping with us in the bed at night than in her bassinette - this seems to work best for me too at the moment as I�ve been pretty tired. I�ve got her sleeping on her side during the day at the moment (in the bassinette with a baby snuggler) as I think she would be choking on mucous on her back. I�ve also been careful with her feeds to avoid her vomiting due to the cold. Hopefully she kicks it pretty quickly� I think she�s on the mend. It seems to be a pretty minor cold - DS1 is much better now too and is back to his usual chipper self which is good.

Lily had a check up with the child health nurse who visited us at home last week. She had put on almost 1.2kg and grown 4cm in the 4 weeks since birth, which I was really pleased with. We had to go back to the CYH clinic on Thursday for a follow-up hearing test as the nurse wasn�t able to get a satisfactory result when she visited us - thankfully, Lily passed the test so we don�t have to worry about that anymore.

It sounds like a lot of the March bubbas are getting unsettled at around the 3 week mark� takes a bit of getting used to after they spend the first couple of weeks just feeding, sleeping and pooing. It is lovely to see them changing and becoming more and more alert each day� We�ve seen a few smiles from Lily in the last few days. She seems to really enjoy being spoken to and made a fuss of.

Sorry if some of the personals below are a bit out of date� I actually started typing this post on the weekend but haven�t had time to finish it due to everything going on around here�

Kar - I haven�t started any regular expressing yet, only have a couple of 110ml containers in the freezer from when I was really engorged just after Lily was born. With the two boys I always expressed after a feed but only usually small amounts which I used for mixing with rice cereal when they started solids. I only ever expressed for a bottle feed when I knew I was going out without bub (which was hardly ever), usually did this over a few days. As it turned out, neither of my boys would drink milk from a bottle� maybe because we only tried them with a bottle when they were older bubs. If you plan to give a bottle of expressed milk regularly Mrslamotte�s suggestion sounds good. It can be difficult to get a reasonable amount of milk when expressing - I agree with NewMe, looking at a picture of bub or thinking about bub helps and you can try applying a warm flannel to the side you�re expressing from. Don�t worry about Felix missing out on milk, your body will always produce enough milk to meet demand. Glad to hear that the posture feeding is working for you.

Hubnbump - I used to have a stash of old facewashers to use as willy covers during a nappy change with the boys, I found them to be quite effective. Sorry to hear about the powerchuck but it sounds pretty normal - Jacob may have had some wind which came up along with his feed. Hope your photo session with Jacob went well today.

Mks - hope the colic drops continue to work. Yes, it is hard to believe we have had our babies!

MamaKoala - thanks for the congratulations and well wishes, good to have you pop in! Hope your pregnancy is going really well.

NewMe - hope the pain you were getting has gone now. Did you find out what it was? I agree with the others, either a maxi dress (with deep v-neck) or breastfeeding top as possibilities for the wedding you are going to. Good luck with the shopping!

Karice - glad to hear you got some good help with the feeding positioning today. That is how I was shown to breastfeed from the beginning, i.e. never have your hand behind baby�s head as they don�t like it and can make them choke. I can highly recommend �Breastfeeding �.naturally� as a great reference book for all things breastfeeding - it is written by the ABA. Hope Lee gets back to his normal self too as far as giving you more help without asking goes. I know I feel that I have to ask more often than I would like at times - unwashed dishes and mess just doesn�t get to my DH as much as it does to me. :hugs: Big hugs, hope you�ve had a better day today. Good on you for passing on all the helpful information you�re getting! Wish I could catch up with you guys who are organizing to meet.. have a lovely time!

LIH - hope you managed to get some rest today, and that Lucius was a bit more settled. :smiliedance: Great news about your voice, must be such a relief for you. Hope your endocrinologist can get things right for you.

Tales - hope all is going well with you and bub.

Nae - glad to hear that you and Sahara are doing well. Those photos you got done were just gorgeous btw.

MellyMumma - hope you and your family are all over your colds now.

Freya - hope everything is going okay for you, sounds like an extremely busy time for you with 2 little ones on your own. Hope you�re getting some support.

Pebbles - hi, hope you and your boys are doing well.

Tommo - great to see you in here! It sounds like everything happened as it should for your birth given the circumstances. Wonderful that you�re recovering so well. Hope Joshua continues his great sleeping!

Lochie&coopersmum - oh not you guys too! Maybe there are lots of colds going around Adelaide at the moment, lots of people seem to be sick. Hope Cooper gets well very soon!

Kyleighb - hope Benjamin's check up goes well� mucous sounds like there might be something irritating his bowel. I hope it�s something simple that can easily be remedied. Do you have any lactose intolerance in your family? Good luck and hope it�s all sorted out for you soon.

MummyJ - great that you�re enjoying Leila so much. So exciting when you get those first smiles isn�t it?!

Jeca - I agree with the others� if you�re concerned about the bleeding I�d get it checked. I bled for around 4 weeks (only finishing spotting now), but the initial heaviness tapered off quite a lot within a few days.

Katie - it sounds to me like you are being a beautiful and very attentive mummy, so don�t beat yourself up. Like some of the others, I mainly use Lily�s playtime at the moment to talk to her and just carry her around with me. She seems to enjoy looking at faces and being cuddled lots.

Well that�s the best I can do with baby brain at the moment�. a big hello to anyone I�ve accidentally missed.

Off to do baths. Hope you all have a great night and get some sleep!
Lisa :wave:

LivingINhope

01-04-2009, 21:09

Kar � thanks for that I was wondering what you ment�with DS1 I had to lye down to feed. DS2 is strong impatient sucker and I have bad nipple damage that I am struggling to heal so I am scared to try anything other than regular feeding. I will have to get the guts to try it�

Newme � The maxi dress is a great idea I didn�t think of that good one. Breast milk can be used for so many things look it up and I bet you can find ways to use it.

Kyleighb � Hope DS2 is OK, our DS2 has reflux muxh like No1 we are exploring a few avenues. Apparently you can take then to an osteopath/chiropractor that specialises in paediatrics and they do a few adjustments which get rid of reflux.

Karice � (HUGS) Honey what you are going through is not easy don�t be to hard on yourself and you have to do what works for you. There is no shame in having troubles adjusting to your new life, we all go through an adjustment period. The number one thing is you need support right now, do you have a Tresillian day stay centre near you? They were fantastic with me through all my stuff and DS1 really benefiited from a well slept, supported mummy.

The no1 thing with reflux is to hold out the babies feeds, I read over my Tresillian notes the other day DS1 was in at 3w old cause of feeding/sleeping problems (they always go hand in hand) and I had the baby blues. It says to feed 3-4 hourly and I remember after our stay a massive improvement, in saying that he still ended up on zantac he was pretty bad.

I do the same of feeding you talked about, but I have made the mistake of holding bubs head and when he fusses I try to keep him on, he has choked a few times. I also have a really fast letdown which was a problem with DS1 also (TMI WARNING) when I take off my top I spray everywhere so I have to keep a top on or carry a towel. I use a dummy cause we have to a lot to help bubs and I always stop burp and change nappy which works. I sleep with my top off and sometimes have it off in the day if I can I have already had mastitis once and get engorged and lump a lot.

Tommo � Sounds like you really put in the hard yards with your labour, well done your little man is here. Glad to hear formula helped and your little guy is settled, we have to use a dummy also our little man is very windy (has relfux also).

Lochie&coopersmum - Sorry to hear your boys are sick, I hope tonight is not to bad for you.

Bongos � Glad to hear lilys hearing test went well, what a relief for you. Sorry to hear lily is not well hope she gets better soon.
_______________________________________
Well my nipples are still not completely healed so I am thinking about seeing a lactation consultant to make sure I am doing everything right. It hurts to attach to the left side cause of the split I have on the side of my nipple which is taking ages to heal, sometimes the top of my nipple is white when bubs comes off like its getting compressed on the roof of his mouth or something.

He is very unsettled right now and has been feeding 3 hourly all day and night lately, I am now making inquiries into a pediatric osteopath as I don't want to have to use meds again.

Well better fly Lucius will be feeding shortly and I need to have a shower and relax.

I am also still waiting to get into mothers group apparently I will have to wait until next month...I am like what will I even be with mums that have bubs the same age...kinda defeats the purpose. I dunno I missed out last time and have been hoping to get into it this time as I know no-one in Newcastle...I guess we'll see.

kar

02-04-2009, 09:58

LIH - it sounds like your super boobs could be a contributing problem like for Karice and I (I feed with a cloth nappie or face washer over the other boob because so much comes out when I start to feed a breast pad really doesn't cut it! also when I express it pours out for the first few minutes then abruptly stops). With the posture feeding you attach them the same way then recline, although I think it would be tricky if your nips weren't A-OK. Can also get them started then take them off to let the initial milk pump out.

LIH - how do you hold them out between feeds? Felix flips out if I try to make him wait 5 bloody minutes while I go to the toilet and get a glass of water. I really don't know how I could make it half an hour or more. IS that where the dummy comes in handy? He won't be distracted by playing. I do his nappy and change his clothes if he needs it but that really only takes 5 mins and he gets mad about it!

Welcome mummy Tash! So glad you are home and well, that was quick after c-sec, i thought you had to stay in for 7 days? Obviously not!

Bongos and LIH - what super human personals efforts!

Well, posture feeding continues to go well. read some stuff about how you shouldn't do it too often because of potential blocked ducts but I am going to keep going, it is saving my sanity at the moment. Only had one screaming session yesterday from about 5.15 to 6ish and wasn't reflux related i don't think - just grumpy. Poor DH, was when he got home and gave him a cuddle.

starting to think that maybe he doesn't have reflux as such, that it is related to the fast let down and guzzling causing the reflux and tummy pains.

Fed Felix at 10 last night and he slept through to 2.45. Only problem was that he then was completely awake from having such a big sleep. Wouldn't even settle in bed with us. He did do a few milk voms, so maybe that was the problem (he has stopped screaming in pain but still gets small non-projectile milk vom most feeds) but I think he was just awake.
Got back to sleep about 5 and slept to 8.

Does anyone else have this prob - when bub starts to have longer sleeps he doesn't want to go back down overnight?

My mothers group is not starting until after Easter but I figure it will be the same people as it would have been if it had started in March?

Bongos - sounds like Lily is really thriving, it is just amazing how much they grow in the first month!! Felix did the same as Lily - 5cm in length and 1.2kgs. Wowsers!! Hope you are all feeling better soon.

OK - moans and groans turning into squawks, better go.

Katieflutterby

02-04-2009, 10:09

Livinginhope, can you give me some details about the mothers groups here in Newcastle? Ive received no info about them, and I have no idea how to find out where or when etc. I thought the hospital might give me some of that info, or the clinic nurse, but so far I have nothing!

Have you got some Lansinoh? Might help with the sore nipple. My left one was incredibly sore to begin with, and Lansinoh helped.

Karice, I think I also got delayed Baby Blues. All went so well for the first 2 weeks, and now it seems to have all changed and things dont seem to go as smoothly. Things will get better for us, I guess we are still adjusting, and the sleep deprivation is catching up with us. I think I was running on Adrenalin for the first 2 weeks.

Bongoes, sounds like Lily is doing beautifully. :) I hope her cold clears up soon though, poor thing.

Tommo sounds like you did so well in your labour. I hope your scar heals quickly for you.

Hi to everyone else! xoxox
___________________

Thanks everyone for the reassurance :hugs: DD is feeding every 3 hours, day and night, sometimes more often. She seems to cry whenever she is awake, her routine is more like Feed Cry Sleep :( Poor thing, I just dont know why she is so upset. Sometimes she just wont sleep, so she cries until its time for her next feed. She is happy after feeding, but I put her down to sleep and she wakes every 10 mins crying for the next 1.5 hours until feed time.

OK I better go have a shower while I can. xoxox

LeeJ

02-04-2009, 11:12

Josh is having a good 3-4 hours at about 11-12pm, then a feed, asleep within half an hour, and sleeps till around 8 in the morning, so if that keeps up, it would be dreamy! he goes for another 4 hours or so from 9am, then the rest of the day is pretty up in the air! (like grizzling, not settling, agh!)
I think he may be a little constipated too, im on the s26, he was SO grizzly for about 9 hours from 2pm yesterday,(when dh got home, i just balled!) would rock him to sleep, but then would wake up, it was pretty trying. Ive done some research, and will try him on heinze nurture, see if that helps.
My aunt express posted some 'nubi' bottles up, got them this morning, apparently good for newborns, so il give that a go in his next feed, fingers crossed! Poor tacker is able to get the milk far too quickly. these are supposed to be much slower.
I sent mum and my sister on a mission through colac to find newborn/slow teats, no success, the women at the chemist was like 'its just a top up though', mum was, no, its full time FF, and got quite a nasty look, gosh, if i had of been there i think i may have just cried! It's not by choice that i have him on it! still trying to get my milk in, to no avail, and he just wont attach properly, one midwife was a bit upset, she feels if they had of shown me and josh the attention we needed earlier, maybe breastfeeding would have worked out for us, i told her, after 4 lactation consulatants, and days of trying, its ok, we''ve done what we can, il continue boobie stimulation, to try and get my milk in, but expressing will be as good as it gets, he just cant attach. we're now at day 6, still no milk tho.....:( it was nice to know someone did care. i was worried how the midwives would be, but they were really supportive, he was losing weight so quickly, and could see i was trying so hard, between pumping and feeding, i wasnt getting any rest, and it was all so stressful, then my poor nipples were bleeding, oh, it was a tough strech.
im still feeling pretty delicate about the bottle feeding.
ok, i have rambled on so much, sorry!!

LIH, i can sypathise with the nipples, that was the reason we first topped up with formula, more blood coming from nipples than milk:(

bongos, im so scared of josh getting a cold! things seem tough now, let alone getting a cold:hugs: sounds like your handling it so well! Im glad to hear lily got through her hearing test a-ok, and that her weight was so good!

karice, i hope dh listens hard when you talk to him. now that im here, i can understand exactly how you feel. :hugs: is the best i can offer at the moment sweety.

Im sorry, i havn't had a chance to read through the previous posts, il be sure to keep on top of new posts, but dont think il have time to go back thru, so, il catch up on the latest news soon.

Im hoping this afternoon will be easier than yesterday:fingerscrossed: That was tough.
Thanks for listening to the ramble girls.

tinytotsmum

02-04-2009, 11:31

hey everyone how are things going. em and i are well things have changed with us though she is now 100% bottlefed now as my milk had just decided to well dry up after all the drama of trying to get her to latch on then trying the shield then just expressing which just tore my nipples apart to the point that i was in tears trying to express and was trying to avoid it if i could but yeah now it is just formul and she is gaining weight like a trooper which is good being she was born small.

my stiches are still annoying me they dont really hurt anymore unless i wipe a bit to hard then they make me yip but yeah it driving me nuts not being able to have sex yet but what can you do but i have also decided that when we first dtd again i have to put something up so em cant see in case she wakes up i dont want her seeing that i saw my parents and it still haunts me till this day. i know that may sound wierd but hey im not normal.

anyway have to run still have heaps of formalities to do i even have to open a bank account for her already as she has like 600 bucks in a money tine for her so may as well put it in an account with 7% interest to build it up.

also just a small question what is everyone doing with the gov money i just putting it in her account, but i have heard others buying clothes for themselves etc.

well gtr em up for feed chow for now.

tinytotsmum

02-04-2009, 11:34

02-04-2009, 14:21

Just a quick one as DD1 will be home from kindy any minute now.

Jeca, Karice and TS - was lovely seeing you all this morning. Shame I couldn't hang around a bit longer but next time!

Tash - TJ is right, you can get coloxyl drops from the chemist. But changing formula might help. DD1 had heinz and it worked well for her. Anytime I have her any formula that was a "gold" one she's projectile vomit:eek:, it just didn't agree with her tummy. Also if you are going to keep trying to get your milk to come in, you may like to have a look in the BF section at the recipe for lactation boosting cookies - you'll need brewers yeast and flaxseed meal(both from the health food shop), but it might be worth a go. Fenugreek is also supposed to be good.

TJ - Owww, you poor thing, you did such a great job persisting with the BF. I couldn't imagine the pain of having bleeding nipples.

My moby wrap just arrived, so I'm looking forward to popping that on and giving DD2 a go in it this afternoon. I'm sure she'll love it. Just a shame I didn't have it first thing this morning, would have saved me getting soaked in the rain on the trip across the road from the shops to the doc.

Great news, DD2 has put on about 700 or so grams since we left hospital and is now a lovely 3.5kgs:smiliedance:. DD1 wasn't anywhere near that weight for months and they were only 35grams apart at birth.

mks

02-04-2009, 14:29

Hi everyone. Should be having a sleep since I have finally got both children asleep but I think Ella will be awake soon for her next feed. She's been doing really well for the past few days so hopefully she doesn't have much colic. She still has her awake periods but she wants to be held more than crying in pain. I wonder if she's getting enough milk but she's sleeping and weeing and pooing so I guess she must be. We are going to the clinic next week so we'll see how much weight she has put on. She has grown though.

TJ are you talking about the baby bonus? We are using it to help pay for Ella's christening. We did the same for Michael. That might sound like a lot but Greeks do big parties for christenings too. We are going to try and cut it back this time but we'll prob still have around 100 people and we'll be having a lunch somewhere for them. Having said all that, we certainly have everything we need for both kids.. we would never use it on stuff for ourselves if we needed anything for them.

Tommo, I wouldn't worry about the pharmacy assistant. You will learn very quickly that once you become a mother you get judged for every little thing you do. I am not going to let it bother me anymore! It gets worse as they get older too!

Katie, I think having a baby is so overwhelming (esp 1st time) that you can't help but have some tears. With DS I was emotional for quite some time. This time though I think I was prepared for what was ahead and I didn't get 'the blues' at all. Quite happy about that. I am much calmer about it all though and it's not such a shock to come home with a newborn!

Kar I think it is hard to hold a newborn out - when they get bigger it's easier. If you have to though I guess you try the dummy and put up with some tears???

Karice I hope DH becomes a bit more helpful and understanding. I know how hard your 1st can be. I don't think any men really get what it can be like.

Bongos hope Lily is better soon. I am prepared for colds a lot earlier this time. With DS he was the 1st and didn't go to daycare until 18 mths so he didn't get sick for a long time. This time I am sure Ella will pick up whatever Michael brings home from daycare.

Newme, are you better? When I had DS (c-section) I got pains very similar to what you described and it was actually the start of an infection which my GP cleaned up. Since we got it early I didn't need antibiotics and once he cleaned all the gunk (sorry TMI) I was 100% better. For a couple of days though I could hardley move the pain was so bad!

Anyway, must go and check on Michael.. I hope he's asleep and not being naughty in his room!

tales

02-04-2009, 16:48

Hiya all! I was just wondering if anyone had heard from Missyky lately? She had her bub?

Missyky

02-04-2009, 18:31

hey everyone!! i hope you and your bubbas are doing well !!

Mines still in there :( im soo over it, soo drained and i just want cuddles from my little man, but he seems soooooo comfy in there!!! :(
The birthing centre wont even talk about inducing me yet which is driving me nuts!!

Thanks for asking about me tales!!!

Miss ya all, will pop in and catch up on all the goss very soon!!

02-04-2009, 18:45

You'd been so quiet on here the last day or so Missyky that when i saw you'd posted i thought it might be a birth announcement. I hope the waiting isn't getting you too down, the worst part of being overdue with no 1 was that everyone was calling multiple times a day with the "is anything happening" line. Drove me batty. Thank-goodness I was only 2 days over when she was born. This time around though we were prepared and didn't tell anyone our EDD, just kept saying "late march, early april". Then she came early on the 10th march lol - no-one expected that!

DD1 has driven me batty this afternoon/evening. She came home from kindy about 3 hours earlier than usual because DH has to work tonight and I couldn't go on the bus in all this rain to pick her up. Thank-goodness getting her into bed wasn't too much of a battle, though DD2 was screaming at the same time so those stress levels were starting to get up there. 2 kids screaming at 1 adult is not my idea of fun!

Anyway, DD2 has just fallen asleep on my lap, so I shall whip her away into bed then try to catch some sleep myself. Don't like my chances though, I really struggle to sleep when DH is away, but once I hear that garage door open I'm asleep before he's pulled in the driveway!

LivingINhope

02-04-2009, 20:17

Kar � I have a lactation consultant coming tomorrow to help with my nipples and possible attachment issues�although everyone that watches me says its fine so I guess we�ll see. We use a dummy to hold Lucius out between feeds it�s the only way, baths are a good one also he gets so relaxed I have time to redress him give him some baby massage etc I hope Felix continues to do well and doesn�t really have reflux what a bonus!

Try to make sure bubs has awake time during the day and use a bedtime routine like wrap him first, cuddle then put down and eventually he�ll understand that its sleep time. I sometimes find Lucius wants to sleep all day and wake at night so I trick him and shut the curtains in the day and leave a lamp on at night�it works. We only have problems when he gets reflux and pains then it takes forever to get him down.

Kattieflutterby � The mother groups are run by the early childhood centers I know Lambton and Hamilton are the main 2 that do it. I am going to the Hamilton one but it seems there is a big waiting list so call asap. Yeah I use lansinoh but my nipples are actually severely cracked and one looks like it has a deep gash on the left side which is very painful. I have used stuff to get rid of the thrush caused by severe cracking but can�t seem to completely get over the hurdle, I didn�t get this with DS1.

Sounds like DD could have reflux, unfortunately the more you feed the worse it gets. Try to feed only 3-4 hourly never give in below 2 � hours for her sake. Feeding and sleeping problems go hand in hand, try to do anything to get her to sleep car, pram, baby bjorn etc. I would also call tressillian for advice you won�t be able to keep that up long term without feeling the blues, sleep deprivation is not good for either of you. Hope it improves soon.

Tommo � DS1 had reflux and was very sensitive we used nan ha which was fantastic infact that with thickener got him off zantac, he never got constipated which was great. You can do tummy massage and leg exercises to help a constipated baby also, but choosing formula can be tricky. People are b****ds when you have trouble BF, I had to give up with DS1 when he was 4 months to have treatment and people were soooo rude about it. What is important is you tried and did what was best for Josh, better he eats specially formulated formula than nothing. It makes me so mad when people are like that cause they don�t know what your circumstances are :hugs:

TJ � Take it easy on the stitches girl didn�t they tell you just to pat dry for 6 weeks, wash the area frequently and don�t touch it as can get bacteria and all sorts of nasties. I know what you mean about hurting still I sit down in low chairs or try to get in the car and it can be an epic of avoiding hurting the area�LOL!

That�s great you can afford to put the money away for your daughter we are using ours to pay bills, buy the kids clothes and that�s it that is as far as it goes. I wish I had money to put it away and buy clothes and stuff for me, maybe when I am working again.

Newme � Glad to hear DD2 is thriving that�s fantastic! I hear on the stress levels of 2 kids screaming/crying at me, my patience for DD1 runs a little thin and I feel so bad. It really is a big juggle going form 1 to 2 isn�t it.

MKS � Sounds like Ella is doing well to be filling her nappies I wouldn�t worry, they say 5 good disposable wet nappies a day is great. Maybe she just loves to be close to you, I hear everyone talk about the inconsolable crying at about 3w so we may all experience a bit of that.

Missyky � I am sending you labour vibes and thinking of you surely they won�t let you go more than 10 days over�
_______________________________________
***WARNING DH RANT***

As for me my 3 boys...oops my bad...yes I do mean it my husband has been full of tantrums the last few weeks and driving me nuts. Today I lost it and said I was getting a lawyer...well he sure changed his tune but I do get sick of having to make threats to get him to pull it together. Its hard enough with a refluxy newborn, cranky 3yo let alone a crazy DH.

I have organized a family doctors appointment tomorrow and I am making him come good on his commitment to see a psychologist about his depression, it is getting in the way of our relationship! He has been sleeping in the 3rd bedroom so the baby doesn't keep him awake cause he freaks about not sleeping even though he has not had to work for 3 weeks. I do everything and still have to put up with his crazy episodes.

Anyway I am freaking about how I will juggle my 2 boys when DH goes back to work. I think I will organise playgroup or gymberoo for Wednesdays just to make DS1 week fill up with fun. he is very active and hates waiting around while the baby feeds and can't stand when he cries. Although I am thinking the extra stress of DH being off the rails may be contributing to DS1 moods.

Well I am off to do a few things before my next feed and then finally sleep...YAY!

I have a lactation consultant coming tomorrow to check my attachment and help me come up with a way to heal my left nipple tear. Gosh I can't wait to have normal nipples again, when DS2 feed on the right side its fine its just on the sore nipple its not. He also trows his head back and doesn;t let dgo of my nipple so sometimes the tear gets worse:hissy: very painful.

Have a good night sleep girls:D

melbryan

02-04-2009, 20:38

Thanks LIH I just have to read your post when I don't have much time and then I can catch up on things in the thread. Sorry to hear about DH, It must be hard for you and it feels like youa re a bit like my need to fill up the week I get stir crazy staying home all the time. I too am joining a playgroup.

Sounds like there are few reflxy babies both Ds1 and Ds2 were on meds for reflux it is the most horrible thing that can happen to a baby and it's family. It can lead to extreme exhaustion girls. I have had all chcuky babies and like LIH thickened formula si good and sitting them up. I have wind issues too with bus so that together elads to an unsettled baby. Get help don't leave it too long.
We are all good had 8 kids at my house today adn am doing oK since being awake at 4.30 and am still kicking.

kar

02-04-2009, 20:57

Holy crap Mel, go to bed!! 8 kids!

LIH and Bongos - I use your posts as catch ups too!

LIH - maybe it will be easier for you to only have two kids at home instead of three? I told my DH a couple of years ago that if he didn't go to a psychologist and at least try to sort his **** out we wouldn't be having any babies. It is just too hard to be responsible for someone else's mental health as well as everything else.
Hope the LC can help you out.

Tash - I know it is hard but try not to worry about the 'judgers' who know nothing about your circumstances.

MKS - :fingerscrossed: no colic

Missy - Just think, you have to have your baby soon now!!

Well, after an absolutely perfect day F screamed pretty much from 6pm, to 9 pm with a break for a feed in between at 7.15 and a half hour nap before that. DH is at a work dinner, argh hard work!! Think it started with some tummy pain then he just works himself into a complete frenzy. He did a big chuck but I think it may have been screaming induced as it didn't seem to give him much relief from anything, although he was fretting at the boob when I fed him and crunching his knees up after so his tum must have been hurting.
It is quite hot down here today and tonight so when I was trying to hold him to comfort him like normal he was too hot and sweaty and it was making him more upset, but he hates to be put down if he is upset.
At 9 I wrapped him really tightly in desperation after stripping all his clothes off except nappy and he immediately went to sleep.

I need to do something every day too or I go mental, but I think I tend to wear myself out a bit too much.

LeeJ

02-04-2009, 21:30

Kar, oh, this heat has put josh into a frenzy... at 2 yesterday, we had a full on upset about everything-athon, till about 10 last night(:crying:), and he started playing up about 5.30 tonight, and is still going, i think he may almost be ready to go down. When i was giving him a feed at 8, his little forhead was sweating, he just wouldnt feed properly, and threw most of it back up.
the only relief i have is that im sure he will sleep about 4 hours at this sleep, wake for 1/2 an hour for feed and change, ect, then back to sleep till around 7.30-8am.
so its normal for them to just grizzle? gosh, im sooo crap at this, i feel like such a failure when i cant get him to settle, and it seems like there is so much to deal with with the bottle feeding, he seems quite spewy afterwards, like half his feed comes back up.
I feel your pain:hugs:

tee

03-04-2009, 07:42

grace has what we call the 'witching hour' at about 5pm, although it is usually longer than an hour :laughing: sounds like some of you gals are experiencing the same thing! she's mostly good all other times then just is unsettled for a few hours. it's hard too because it's always different things that end up doing the trick. i patted her back for half an hour one night and finally got some wind up, then she settled. another night, she grizzled for 2 hours then did a massive fart then settled. and funnily, sometimes i harrass her so much with trying to settle her - it's when i eventually wrap her up and put her in the cot and leave the room that she settles! hahaha, it's like she's like 'leave me the hell alone mum!'

oh you ladies mentioning the heat distressing the bubs - it was really cool up here yesterday and grace pretty much slept all day, she was so cozy all wrapped up. so hopefully this means that they'll be little sleepy heads with winter approaching, hehe. grace goes into a frenzy with the heat too.

reading everyone's posts when i get a chance. still having some hiccups with my health and finding looking after two kids quite daunting (dh has returned to work). i don't know what i'm so uptight about all the time, the kids are really so good - i just don't know how to relax. i think it's because i'm not feeling 100%. anyway, i must get myself breakfasted and showered while i have a chance.

kar

03-04-2009, 09:55

Tee so good to hear from you!! Hope your health continues to improve and you get to a point you can relax a little!
We call it witching hour too. Starts somewhere between 5 and 6.30 usually and runs for about 2 hours. I also think that last night F was sick of me fussing at him, I wrapped and then just held him but with no fussing and he went to sleep.

Tash - give yourself a break love!! This is all new and you are both learning. I walked, patted cuddled, lay down on the bed with F etc last night on and off for 3 hours and couldn't get him to stop screaming let alone settle.
I think some unfathomable grizzling is just normal - just think, he came down a tube less than a week ago and entered a completely alien environment, I would be upset and overwhelmed sometimes too! Also, don't forget that at this stage they have no way of regulating their emotions themselves so if they get worked up they can't settle themselves down.
You are not crap at this!!

Well, stangely F was upset after his 5am feed this morning, I think he just didn't want to go back in the cot and I put him in anyway wide awake. Rich was on duty though and settled him and then brought him back to bed to sleep on his chest - bless! He then slept through until 8.15 so I got some extra sleep. Rich is gong to try to come home by 2 today given the overnight work retreat and dinner last night. I am really looking forward to a being able to hand F to his dad fora couple of days.
Thank god F has been so much more settled this week and able to sleep in his cot during the day. Not sure how I would have coped if he was still only able to sleep on me and was screaming after every feed with the two nights alone this week. Has been tough enough.
Single mummies, I salute you!

tales

03-04-2009, 10:08

Morning all! I find the best time to post is while I'm feeding little 'Grizzelda' here, though it is one handed so excuse the typos.. :cool:

tee - yeh Abi has a 'witching hour' of sorts, but it starts about 10pm and usually goes through until 2am. I am slowly becoming nocturnal.. or a walking zombie :dizzy: I usually end up taking her to bed with me, just so I get some sleep. Am getting good at sleeping in a partially upright position.

tommo - generally I figure there's usually a reason for the grizzlin, even if it's just for comfort. My middie has assured me babies' only needs are food, sleep and comfort at this age. Comfort has a huge grizzle-factor attached (being that it includes the windies, wet duds and loneliness), just tough to figure out which is which. I tried the Dunstan baby talk thing but I can only figure out what sound she's making about 40% of the time and then I never know if I picked it right. I do know I need to work harder on burpies - haven't got that down pat yet.

kar - it's so hard to get them to settle when they reach screaming pitch. Abi usually only does that when we take too long changing her (DP is a bit slow at it still, but learning like a trooper) and she starts getting cold. Sounds like little F was just too hot, so well done for figuring it out (and stripping him down). It's hard to read them at times - we're seriously rock for succeeding as far as we do, I reckon. :yes:

mel - second kar with the getting of sleep. 8 kids!? By the gods...

LiH - hope it goes well with the LC. I can't imagine how awful a nipple tear would be! I had a minor crack on my leftie which hurt badly enough. Seems to have gone now, fortunately. Also, I know living with someone who suffers depression is terribly difficult and debilitating - mind you take care of yourself, get plenty of rest, eat and drink well and take in a bit of exercise where you can. :fingerscrossed: he is the kind of person who accepts his issues and actively seeks help for them. In the end, it's up to him to fix his state of mind, not you.. aside from the fact that you have enough to deal with right now, you can only lead the horse to water. Big hugs to you, in any case hon. Here's hoping it gets sorted for the sake of your sanity at least.

newme - Erk @ 2 screaming kids. One screaming kid and 2 fighting cats is enough to get my stress levels peaking - though at least I can lock the cats away in time out if they really p!ss me off. The authorities generally don't look too kindly on locking children in cages for similar reasons... :rolleyes:

Missyky - Gosh is it only 3 days overdue? Feels like so much longer - especially considering most of the bubs due around yours decided to come early. March just seemed to be the month for early bubs - I truly think yours (and the couple of others we're still waiting for) is the exception and is taking great delight at being the odd one out. I think the labour fairy has blacklisted me, so I don't think there's much else I can do for you in that regard. Here's a sweet little fairy I found for you instead.. maybe she will prompt some magic your way http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb102/nursgiggles/fairy.jpg

karice - just read back through some of your BF posts - thanks heaps for sharing that. It makes sense when someone explains it about fast let down. I sometimes wonder if Abi's disengaging from the breast sometimes means the flow is too fast, not that she's not attaching correctly (though it is that sometimes too). I'm no good at the football hold, myself, and Abi hates it when I hold her head (she screams bloody murder), so we cradle most of the time, and when that doesn't work I let her lead attachment (so we end up feeding at about a 45 degree angle while I'm lying back). Usually I get a good attachment one way or the other. I hope it's all working out for you now, though. All the stuff I read about not having enough milk supply etc, it never occurred to me that one could have too much!!

mks - sounds like she just wants comfort, at least some of the time. Abi's much the same, gets stroppy and whingey rather than there being anything actually wrong. A few cuddles with me or dad fixes her right up, so I know she's actually fine. Cheeky little monkey.

bongos - Hope Lily is over her snuffles. Poor poppet.

---
As for us..

Abi is feeding pretty well now. I still have to wake her for most of her feeds, especially during the day. She's a real day sleeper and I can't for the life of me figure out how to keep her stimulated and awake during the day so she'll sleep at night instead. It's a pattern which has carried over from the womb, so hopefully she will switch out of it sooner rather than later. We seem to have resolved a few of our BF issues, being that we're both getting better at it. The right side is still difficult to attach properly when she's being fussy, but as said above, a couple of different positions usually get her attached one way or the other. At 4am it can get a bit overwhelming though, and we occasionally both end up in tears. I'm persevering to keep her feeding from both sides under all circumstances, though. Taking the easy way out all the time (and only feeding from the left if she's being narky) probably isn't good. I don't think she's feeding long enough to empty either boob at a sitting yet, though I wouldn't know what an empty boob really feels like. I do know what a full one feels like, however.

DP goes back to work on Monday, which is a bit of the sad as it's been nice having him at home. My mum will be here for another week and after Easter, I'll be here on my own during the day. It's a bit daunting, but I'm sure I'll manage. I'm aware that this next 6 months is probably going to fly past, and then I'll have to go back to work. It's already making me desperately unhappy at the thought of leaving my bub all day, so I intend on making the most of this brief time i have of being available 24/7 for my little one and being the person who exclusively feeds her, even if it means waking up every three hours at the moment.

No plans for today. Think the DP is going out, but being that it's pshlergening rain outside, I think Abi and I will be perfectly content to curl up on the couch with the dog all day ;)

Jeca

03-04-2009, 10:11

Does anyone know where I can get one of those babies that sleeps at night? It's not that Millie doesn't sleep, but she must be having her first growth spurt because she wants to feed at least 2 hourly at the moment - 3 hours is a real stretch and she gets so hysterical even with a dummy that there's no way I could stretch it out for her. She is just a booby monster. She goes back to sleep really well after a feed at night, unless she gets hiccups (which she gets a lot) and then she's awake for an hour or more. I'm feeling very tired today. Oh and there's nothing a mother of a wakeful newborn hates more than another new Mum ringing up to boast about her one week old who sleeps for 8 hours a night every night! I'm tired :sleeping: and crabby, had a big cry for about an hour the morning cos I was so tired. Miss Millie's been awake for about 3 hours now - she's happy, but there's no getting her to sleep. Ok, back to trying to get her to sleep so I can go to sleep too.

kar

03-04-2009, 10:52

Poor Jeca!! apparently 3 wks and 6 wks are big growth spurts. F went to 2/2.5hr feeding during wk 3, it is so hard.
1 week olds shouldn't sleep for that long their tums aren't big enough to sustain them, so :raspberry: to bragging mum.
Crying from exhaustion happens here once a week. I seem to hold out until Friday night then it is over to you Rich, bring F to me for feeding otherwise I am going to bed for 12 hours.

Tales - super posting effort, it sounds like you are doing so well!! I always try to nip crying before it gets to fever pitch, I don't leave F to cry as much for my own sanity as anything else, but when it happens there is just no stopping him.
I agree that grizzling for no apparent reason probably means that they just want a cuddle.

I yelled at my dog last night for being whiny and clingy while I was trying to settle F :(. took my stress out on the mut, feel bad and mean - as tales said at least you are allowed to lock the animals out! :laughing:

Well, Melbourne has turned tropical. After the last 2 days of being hot we are now having an absolutely massive electrical storm. It is pouring. F seems to like it though - is sleeping soundly through the thunder!

Tales - out MCHN said that at this age there is absolutely no point in trying to keep awake during the day in the hope they will get better at sleeping at night, you will just end up with a grumpy baby- it just takes a while for their body clock to flip over. To help the process have Abi sleep in a well lit area during the day that is not too quiet and give her lots of stimulation during awake period and at night have her sleep in quiet, dark area with no talking/playing during feed time and she will start to get it.

tales

03-04-2009, 11:23

:hugs::hugs: Jeca. I feel your pain - and am dreading the growth spurts.. my poor boobies..

Danke kar :D I have been having her sleep out in the living room where the family and noise is during the day and having her bunker down with us at night seems to help..

Speaking of, little Miss is calling, BBL :)

LeeJ

03-04-2009, 12:03

Thanks Kar, tough time of night when i posted. He is most unsettled between 6pm and builds up to a bit of a terror till around 10/11pm. He does get a sleep in the morning, which gives me time to get all the running around done round the house, on wednesday though, i got nothing done, so by the time 10 oclock came round, ugh, all i wanted was :sleeping:. Josh is taking today much better too (yay!)

I keep josh with me during the day, in his pram, bouncer, oh, got a baby carrier from a girlfreind yesterday, had him that for a bit last night, and night time is in the cot. I am SO thankful he has settled into his cot alright. But we are only at one week now, so we'll see how it goes.

Jeca, oh, i hope she improves soon:hugs:

Tales, he's pretty good, he gives us some pre warn grizzle for his feed. Its just at night time, he tends to go off the rails, we are still learning, and trying to find the right formula for him, i think he has been getting tummy aches. I was so scared being at home on my own with josh, we got home teu, and dh went out to a job from 12pm-8pm on wednesday, i was a tad bit of a mess when he got home! it was SO hot and miserable down here tho, so josh was upset all day. We are getting much better at being here alone. it was actually good last night, dh came in about 6, after being at work for most of the day, and was happy to have a bit of time with josh, so him owrking sort of saves sanity for both of us, iykwim?

Ok, im rambling, hope everyone is going well!
We were lucky last night, after his grizzle session, we had him down at 10.30, woke at 2.30 for feed, back down at 3, wake at 6.30, back down at 7, and back up at 9, so i think we might have actually got 7 odd hours of sleep!:smiliedance:

03-04-2009, 12:49

Oh Jeca - If your friend knew Millie was such a night owl it was pretty insensitive of her to phone to brag. :hugs:. I hope you're able to get some rest this afternoon. I wish there was something I could do to help - certainly let me know if there is.

I can't believe it, the neighbours dog was barking at the post man(the dog was in their garage so no-where physically near the post man) and he just went off yelling. The poor lady she's at home with her 2yo DD and her newborn and has the postman yelling(and swearing) because her dogs are doing what is natural for them(barking at someone they perceive as a threat). The 2yo was there and heard it all too. I feel like phoning Australia Post and complaining but I don't know who to phone or what to say because I wasn't out the front and couldn't physically see what was happening. I'd certainly been peeved if DD1 was here and had to listen to that.

:hugs: to everyone experiencing the witching hour. DD1 had the prolonged screaming witching hour, so I know the pain.

I'll keep it short, I really need to eat while DD2 is sleeping.

Karice

03-04-2009, 13:40

Hello all

Newme, Jeca and TS - I had such fun meeting up with you all yesterday, it was exactly what I needed. Get out of the house and have adult conversation with other girls!!! :D Sorry if I seemed a bit distant, I know i'm a blabber mouth on here, but in real life I'm quite shy :o

LIH - pain in the butt Dp's and Dh's can be...well...a pain in the butt, so I hear you on that one. I really just don't think that they GET it... Just coz we're at home all day doesn't mean that we've got it easy at all. And I swear if I hear the words "but I'm tired" one more time I'm going to shove a pillow down his neck...

Jeca - sorry to hear that you had a rough day today :hugs:it sucks when all you want is sleep and it just doesn't happen

It seems everyone has this "witching hour" thing happening. The child health nurse told me that its normal for there to be a "cluster feed" period duringthe evening where they won't settle and snack feed blah blah blah but I'm wondering when its happening for too long? Cady's so called cluster feeds can happen for as long as 5 or 6 hours where she starts to go on around 5pm, feed for 10 mins, off for 15mins and around and around we go. Usually around 11pm or midnight I throw in the towel and give her a small amount of forumla (about 50mls) which knocks her out like a light and I finally get some sleep. THe health nurse was all "oh but you shouldn't do that coz it will interfere with your milk supply, your nipples need the stimulation..." surely 5 or 6 hours is enough "stimulation"????

I'm just about to head off to the breastfeeding clinic for an appointment we have today, so I'm going to ask about that. I might add that by the time I've given her formula my boobs are sooo soft and squishy, I'd really be surprised if there was any milk left in there.

Jeca

03-04-2009, 13:44

Thanks girls. I've been an emotional basket case today. Lots more tears, feeling like a crap mother. This time third time around, you'd have thought I'd've got the hang of it by now! Everytime I lay down to try to get some sleep myself my little princess wakes and wants booby!! Anyway, going to try again, but I reckon Millie will scuper those plans!!

ETA - she's only 2 weeks old - surely too little for a growth spurt? Mind you, she's growing so well!

ETA again! Karice - good luck with the breastfeeding clinic. I think the suggestion not to give the top up with formula is just that her continual feeding will up your supply, but having a snack feeder who feeds A LOT I completely understand topping up with formula. I haven't tried it myself - we've no bottles - but I know absolutely what you mean and why you do it. The stimulation will keep your supply up to her needs though. I thought my boys were booby monsters, but Millie makes them look tame LOL! I'm getting paranoid about my supply.

trifecta

03-04-2009, 14:41

Jeca - My little man Jacob was feeding every 2 - 2.5hrs yesterday and ALL NIGHT last night, I'm exhausted today. We get at least a daily occurrence of the hiccups too and with it is always a bit of a spit up.
Karice, we def have periods of cluster feeding also, it's so frustrating and tiring.
He's 3wks old today so I'm thinking it must be a grow spurt, and he's only cat napping during the day. He hasn't been to bad today, but has had a couple of huge feeds then seams happy enough to zonk out for an hour or so.

I should really be having a nap while he's down but the time just seams to get away on me all the time. Jacob doesn't seam to really have a 'witching hour' as yet, he's always fast asleep by 7pm and last night it was 5:30pm, then the 3hr feed cycle begins.
DH get's home at 5 and has started going to the gym which is something I need to encourage due to his health, but by the time he gets back Jacob is usually asleep or about to go to bed so he's really not spending ANY time with him. I feel a bit sad for both of them, even weekends DH tends to work most of them.

urgh I think I'm going to go lay down, dinner and the washing can wait a bit.... I bet he's about to wake up...

Karice

03-04-2009, 17:09

Hi Girls,

Just got back from the Breastfeeding Clinic OMG I sooooo recommend them! They don't just talk about feeding and attachment etc... but baby behaviour and communication etc... absolutely brilliant! I've learnt so much today!! Here's a few fun facts thats I learnt today:

Cluster Feeds & witching hour: should only last for 45 mins of feeding over a 2 hour period. Anything more than this and baby is using your nipple as a dummy.

Tiredness vs Wind/Colic : Tiredness and overstimulation is misinterpreted for Wind or Colic 90% of the time (OMG!) Stiffness, crunching of legs, jerky movements, mouthing, frowning, grimacing, intense crying are all symptoms of when baby is beyond tired. If baby has had a good feed, clean nappy and been burped then its time for sleep. A swaddle, dark soothing room and some patience should get bub off to sleep. (easier said than done...)The problem is that they need to learn how to settle without boob in mouth. IF your milk supply is adequate in the early days and breastfeeding is well established, then it won't hurt to introduce a dummy in the early days, otherwise try to hold off for 6 weeks of age.

Sleep cycles: Babies have a sleep cycle of around 40mins each (adults are 90 mins) During their Rapid Eye Movement sleep is when babies will dream (the first part of sleep) and they will be quite vocal, squawking, crying out, squirming etc... Parents often think their babies are awake, but they can distrupt their sleep by actually waking them up. It's best to just watch them for 10 or 15 mins and see if they go still. When they reach their deep sleep, they will be still and it will be harder to wake baby up. Then comes the waking cycle, loud sudden noise, wet nappy etc... will rouse baby during this time. If they wake and stay awake they will still be cranky during this time as babies need to have 2 sleep cycles per sleep to be fully rested (or around and hour and a half per sleep) If baby wakes up, try to get them off to sleep again for another cycle (something i've been doing very very wrong :o)

Babies at this age should only be awake for no more than 1 hour at a time and they recommend the pattern of Feed, Play, Sleep. This way baby gets a nice big feed while they are rested, will feed more efficiently and productively, then they get interaction etc... for about an hour and then go to sleep without being on the breast.

When they say Play, they said that its facial watching at this stage, talking together, sing songs, eye contact, tummy time and yes ladies it is ok to put bub down in a rocker to amuse themselves while you do the dishes or hang out the washing. Aparently its good to let them watch you around the room without actually being in your arms 24/7 so that you don't end up with a 2 year old that needs to be held all the time ... hmmm never thought of that myself...

I hope this has been useful, it sure did help me out alot :D

lochie&coopersmum

03-04-2009, 17:26

U rock Karice :) thanx heaps for that info xxx

nae1709

03-04-2009, 19:07

Hi Girls!

Just a quick few personals from me tonight.

Tash - I have heard that the Dr Brown bottles are expectional good for reflux/colic babies. If you need I can send you one that I got out of my Toys R Us sample bag.

TJ - we today only decided what to do with the baby bonus. We're going to split it & put half into an account we've opened for Sahara & the other half will go into our savings account. Ours savings account was opened simply to make sure we saved money for a trip to WA we are taking mid year to introduce Sahara to dh's family over there. So in a way the baby bonus will be entirely used for Sahara. We don't want to spend it each fortnight, become reliant on that extra cash only to have it stop 6 mths down the track. The family tax benefit & rent assistance is going towards groceries.

Jeca - I think Sahara is also going through a growth spurt, she is 3 weeks today. For the past couple of days & nights her patterns have change heaps. She is only sleeping for 2 - 3 hrs over night & waking much earlier for her morning play time which then sets the routine for the rest of the day. Like right now she would normally be awake & cluster feeding but she's dead to the world. We're not trying to have her in a routine or anything so I don't mind so much. However we just got use to a kind of routine now she's gone & changed it on us, talk about keeping us on our toes.

Ok so TMI warning.... but I need to ask this, is anyone else's poos very black/green? I still haven't had a normal bowel movement. I mean I'm having them regularily but the colour is really off, very much like what newborns first poos look like. My bleeding/discharge has slowed right now to drizzle now which is one thing. Plus my stitches are pretty much non existant anymore thank god.

Anyway it's getting close to bed time for me, how sad! I can't believe we've gone from not heading to bed until after 10 pm to now not being out of bed later than 8 pm. I can't remember the last time I got to watch one of my 8.30 pm shows on free to air. Hopefully Sahara will wake soon for a fed & go back down again otherwise I might just be up late tonight (touch wood I haven't just jinxed myself).

trifecta

03-04-2009, 19:30

Thanks so much Karice, that info def helps! I'm a member of the ABA but haven't managed to contact them yet, the nearest group meet is an hour away from me.
Jacob is awake for more then an hour at a time! I think I must rush to him and pick him up also when he starts crying which is obviously too soon, I can tell when he's tired and then I rock him back to sleep - a bad habit to get into. I also tend to stick him on the boob to settle him which sometimes is the only thing that works - another thing I need to work on! We have a great routine at night but I guess during the day I need to be more aware of his patterns and the time. Thanks again!
We had another massive power chuck just before, he had just fed and was asleep when I got up to put him down, bent over to pick something up and my goodness did I get soaked. Everything, the floor, him, me poor wee mite. So we had our first shower which he quite enjoyed, was quite tricky though.
I gave him a wee bit more to eat cause he was hungry after that, but not too much and now he's down. Fingers crossed he stays fast asleep. Are you meant to give them more after a big chuck?

TuesdaysPrincess

03-04-2009, 20:34

Hi girls!

Just popping in quickly to say hi!

Went to the GP today to see about Benji's poos and reflux - we are holding out starting meds until we see the paed in the middle of April.

I've been told to avoid dairy in my diet because of Benji's mucousy poos. If that doesn't solve it within the next 10 days I have to go on an elimination diet to see what is causing it.

On the other hand, his weight gain is awesome (700g in nearly 4 weeks!) so we're not too worried about his poos - just that fact that it causes him a lot of pain.

Quick question - is anyone else's baby still jaundiced? Benji is still yellow on the torso, head and eyes, and we have to go back to the GP on Thursday to make sure that it's fading, otherwise we'll be off to the hospital for some phototherapy. The jaundice doesn't seem to be affecting him, he wakes for feeds and has good awake time during the day ... weird!

Sorry no time for personals, but just remembered Nae's TMI question - my answer is no, my poops aren't that colour, but then I had a c-section (not sure why it would make a difference though). Have you changed your vitamins at all? It might be too much iron in your diet? Don't know though!

Big hugs to everyone going through witching hours - ours seems to be over for the night thank goodness!

tales

03-04-2009, 21:10

nae - mine go that colour when I take my elevit, because of the iron. It's usually pretty dry though, and I'm trying really hard to avoid constipation since I ended up with a nasty case of post-partum piles.. Drinking heaps of water, eating dried apricots and stuff. Barely managing to keep it under control because the BF is dehydrating me.. If you're worried, ask your GP at your next checkup. If you are moving your bowels, then it's probably nothing major to worry about.

tales

04-04-2009, 08:27

Gah! What a shocking night! Abi cluster fed for a ridiculous amount of time until about midnight, after which she slept peacefully through until about 3am when I woke her for a feed. Then spent two hours trying to get her back to sleep. She cluster fed the whole time, grizzled and screamed. She definitely wasn't hungry. I think she was probably very tired and maybe had wind (I've had some the last day or so too). My DP finally took her sometime after 5 and went to sit out in the living room and in the spare room so I could get some sleep (bless him). She's still not really hungry this morning, and only had a bit of a top up at her 8am feed. Hope she's not crook.. She's sleeping in her cot atm, so will see how she goes today. I guess they have bad nights, and worse nights..

LeeJ

04-04-2009, 09:20

hearing you with a bad night, seemed josh would go down, then be back up again. yesterday was sooo good, he hardly grizzled at all, but made up for it last night:rolleyes:

kar

04-04-2009, 09:25

:laughing: tales, so true! I slept on the couch last night because I am so sick of listening to F's moaning groaning, shrieks etc while he goes to sleep. Calculated I am missing about 1.5hrs a night listening to him Also wondered whether me being next to him contributed to the fussing. Well well, put him in his cot awake after 12 and 4 feeds and he self settled. Guess who is going to his own room.... Sorry DH, I win! (Rich wants him to stay with us but he sleeps through it all)
Sounds like you had a tough night. I think it just happens from time to time and all you can do is work through it and pass them over if they are not hungry. Doesn't sound like sick to me (being such an experienced hand with babies :laughing:) Hopefully you can catch some rest today.

Kyleigh, F stayed jaundiced for quite a while and I think he still has a tinge now but MCHN hasn't had any concern. Sounds like Benji is absolutely fine except for the pain, which is horrible but must be a bit of a relief. Hope the no dairy works for you.

Karice, you are a font of information for all of us, what would we do without you?

Whoever it was said they want to punch DP if they hear "I am so tired" again I am so with you!! We are in a mancold situation and I feel like telling Rich that I don't have time to be sick so stop complaining and get up to F and change his nap! (That is so unfair - he is doing just that, but I have to hear about being tired).

NAE - I seem to be pretty normal re bowels. I agree that it could be iron. Drink a sh*tload of water for a couple of days and maybe stop the vitamins for a few days and see if it helps. I forget to take mine most days...

Jeca & HnB, hope you are feeling better and can get some rest.

I am feeling chipper today after my couch sleep last night. I think lying there awake is just hideous. The get up and feed I can manage but I flip out when I feel like I am missing out on possible sleep.

Tash - hope Josh is giving you some peace.

Freya - I hope you are doing OK, after a couple of nights on my own this week I am even more in awe of you and the other single mummies. I hope you are getting some relief.

Have a good weekend ladies. Hi to everyone I have missed - can only do personals from the pages that display below to prompt my terrible memory!

trifecta

04-04-2009, 09:47

Count me on on the bad night! Jacob woke at 1am for his feed then just wouldn't settle and was screaming until 3:30. I'm so tired....
Have people coming over in 10min and MIL coming tonight.... argghhh.

tales

04-04-2009, 10:12

Something in the air last night perhaps.. Am wondering where the last two weeks went, though.

LeeJ

04-04-2009, 10:27

We had Josh in our room in hospy, i COULD NOT sleep, all i could hear was him, waiting for him to wake up with his little sqaurks.
He has slept in his cot since we got home (i am a horrible mother:cool:) and it has saved our sanity, there is no way we would get ANY sleep if he was in our room.

Yep, dh gets home, its more in the morings he says, 'im tired', yes hunny, me too, i have to tend to this little human 23.5hours a day (1/2 hour for my shower in the morning:p) and that is pretty tiring too! im not breastfeeding, but getting this bottle feeding right is really hard too. Ive spent hundreds now on bottles, teats and formula, trying to get the right mix for him, i think we *may* be getting somewhere now. have to wait and see.
Dh has to come to the side of the bed to help me up still after the ceasar, so i think he constitutes this as 'getting up' when i get up for josh during the night, no hun, you go back to bed and sleep, i get up for half to an hour and feed, burp and settle josh, not the same:cool:

Nae, i would love to try that bottle, but only if your not planning on using it in time to come. (i have a small bottle factory at our house now:rolleyes:) Also, i agree with the other girls, extra iron, prob from your multi vitamin, mine were like that through the whole pregnancy, i remeber running out at one stage, and went wihtout them for a few days, and was like, holy crap! normal coloured poo!:laughing:

I have to agree, josh is 8 days old, every 24 hours is soooo long, but it seems like only yesterday i had him...

eeyorethedonkey21

04-04-2009, 11:07

tash what bottles are you using for josh?

i'm using the avent ones for nathan. my midwife told me that if the milk is literally a slow drip out of the teat then the flow is too slow and they get tired quicker. she said that if u get a packet of two or more teats u might be inclined to get a good teat and a crap teat in the one packet. she said if u find u've got a really good teat that bub has no trouble finishing then put the others away and just use that one good teat.

hi everyone else :wave:. sorry for lack of posting. i have been reading just too tired and lazy to post. :o off to ds1's last swimming lesson for this term soon. better go get showered and dressed.

LeeJ

04-04-2009, 11:25

What bottles havnt we used for josh;)

We have him on the 'mam' ones at the moment, they have almost the same flow as the avent, but have a flatter teat, which i think helps him more, also they are easier to angle so the milk isn't running too quickly too.
The other one we found is 'happy baby', they are the traditional 'long' bottle, on the pack it said for 3-12 months, but they are perfect, the milk doesnt actual drip out of the teat, they have to suck to get it, also you can adjust the top, and it makes it harder or easier to get the milk out, depending on how bubby is. dont bother buying the 'newborn; teats for them though, cause they are heaps faster than the 3-12month ones!

The avent os ok rebecca, we will probably have him back on those, but im finding the mam and happy baby the best at the moment (avent is still far too quick for him), also, the happy baby bottles are only $4 for 2:eek:, so they arnt to expensive to try;)

Karice

04-04-2009, 13:32

Hi Girls,

Just a quick one from me today, I've got a busy day planned today and I've got almost nothing done as it is

nae - I get weird poo from BFeeding and from taking elevit. I try to make sure that I have a massive glass of water every time I feed Cadence, which seems to be helping.

tommo - don't feel bad, Cadence has slept in her own cot in her own room since we came home also. I can't sleep with her next to me either, and she doesn't seem to settle as well as when she's in her own space.

AFM - well the new suggested pattern of Feed, Play, Sleep seems to be working quite well. For the first time since my milk came in I'm not totally engorged and in pain and it also seems to be helping my fast let down :smiliedance: It's such a good feeling to have her body language actually pointed out to me and not feeling like I'm a dairy cow getting milked every 15 mins!!! SHe's having a good nap at the moment, DP is cleaning the kitchen and I'm doing washing, finally catching up on things. OHOHOH and I even managed to blow dry my hair and shave my legs this morning OH....MY....GOD!!!!

Jeca

04-04-2009, 14:41

We weren't doing too bad last night - she went down at about 6.30 and then woke for a feed at 9.30, then slept til 12.30, but then it was 2.30, 4, 5, at 6 I gave up and got up. Day sleeps have been anathema today so I'm not even getting to catch up. I'm wondering if she's not settling cos I'm in with her at night too. But surely 2.5 weeks is too small to put her in her own room? We haven't even painted the room yet!!

Yikes she's crying again - she only had 45 mins sleep before and now I can't get her back to sleep, even breastfeeding her to sleep failed.

nae1709

04-04-2009, 14:45

Thanks to everyone who offered advice re: yuck coloured poos. I never even thought it could be the iron tablets I've had to take since the birth. I had quite low levels when they tested my blood the next day.

Another thing you've all got me thinking is that I haven't even been taking any extra vitamins for breastfeeding. Might mention it to my midwife on Thursday & see what she says. She probably would have mentioned it already if she thought I need anything extra though.

Tash - No problems I'll send you the Dr Brown bottle, just pm me your address again as I'm not sure where I put it from last time.

As I said it was a freebie & I don't plan on using it anytime soon. Touch wood, Sahara doesn't seem to have any wind etc pains, she's more of a farty baby. Plus if I do express feed it will only be once in a blue moon for which I've got some Avent bottles. My midwife did mention though that the best type of bottles/teats for newborns are the old fashioned long type of that you buy from woolies etc.

We actually managed to have a pretty good night with Sahara last night. She woke every 3 1/2 - 4 hrs for feeding during the night/morning. I was so grateful as I thought we were in for a horror night as she seemed to sleep more during the day yesterday.

Well I'm currently busy trying to get little miss's Naming Day ceremony organised for late next month. So much to organise even though it's only going to be a small gathering in a local park.

Karice

04-04-2009, 16:08

we're almost out of nappies here...gone through almost 300 nappies in 3 weeks :eek: so whats that...100 nappies a week...which is around 14 nappies a day...which is a bit more than a nappy every 2 hours...oh dear...

woolies had that deal on again 2 bulk boxes for $66...thing is that she's 4.5kg's and the newborn is up to 5kgs but the next size is 6kgs to 10kgs...hmmm...what about the kilo in between???? so we bought one of each just to be safe :laughing:

mks

04-04-2009, 16:09

Hi everyone. On the subject of tired DH's at the moment DS, DD and DH are asleep and I am working (as in files for my job which I am on maternity leave from!) DH is tired cause he had a late night last night playing poker with the boys to celebrate Ella's birth. The fact that I was home with the 2 kids doesn't come into it! Or the fact that I get up at least 3 times per night to feed and settle her!!!

I was debating when both children fell asleep.. have a sleep, tody house or do work - work won out cause I have been asked to do this work by next week. The fact that I have a 3 week old baby wasn't considered. I am getting paid extra to do it but I knew when I asked for paid leave that it would come at a price. It's like implied 'I did you a favour, now I need a favour'. :banghead: I wish I had a female boss who understood what it's like to be at home with a 2 year old and a newborn.

As for where babies sleep, I had DS in the bassinet in our room for 4 mths. Don't know how long Ella will last - she is so noisy! She grunt in her sleep so I lie there thinking she's awake and get all anxious myself wanting her to sleep. Don;t want her in her room yet though cause I am scared DS will get up and knock the bassinet over or wake her.

Karice you did well.. I have yet to manage doing my hair. It has been in a ponytail since Ella was born. Have managed to put some makeup on though!

We actually had a good night last night. Ella was unsettled between 6 and 8 but I fed her at 8.00, she was asleep by 9.00 and woke at 2.00 and 6.00 for her feeds. Only problem for me was that a friend came over while the boys played poker (which was great cause she amused DS while I was feeding and settling Ella) but she left at 11.00 so I didn't get an early night. Think I am used to no sleep now. When I had DS I was a walking zombie for at least the 1st month!

Anyway, should get back to work. Aggghhh!!!

kar

04-04-2009, 17:23

KArice, I stood in front of the promotion stand thing at the supermarket for 10 minutes trying to decide what size nappies to buy today! I got 2 boxes of newborn figuring that they stay in them until they are 6kgs?? I will give any unused to a preggers friend but I felt really stressed trying to decide!
And to think I used to make decisions that led to people going to gaol or not!!

As usual F has been an angel for his daddy all day :rolleyes: I went up the street ALONE and bought some new singlet tops to wear underneath other tops for BF - inspired, you wear a long top with a deep neck underneath that you can pull down under the boob and then normal one over the top to pull up - don't flash tum and other boob when feeding.
I can't believe it has taken me almost 6 wks to figure this out....

Jeca, I am struggling with thought of own room at 6 wks. Maybe i will just keep sleeping on the couch after the first overnight feed.

Tash - I think overnight bottle feeding would be more onerous than just getting the boobs out and semi sleeping while he feeds. One of the reasons I feel so lucky it worked.

I put make up on too today. Haven't touched a hairdryer though. Probably more to do with the fact that I missed my last haircut due to early arrival so it would make no difference it looks so terrible.

I have started an April chat thread here: Sorry, don't know how to link

http//www.bubhub.com.au/community/forums/showthread.php?t=248340

tinytotsmum

04-04-2009, 21:14

hey all how is everyone going. it is nice to hear what everyone else is doing with the bubba bonus.

Tash - as for the large amount of vomiting after a feed i have found that either they are drinking to much or with emily i found that i wasnt burping her enough. for a 100ml bottle i have to burp her about 3 or 4 times for her to keep it all down if she only gets burped once or twice she normally always does a power chuck and it all comes out her nose poor thing. i have been informed today that the best formula for a fully formula fed baby is the gold and that the others are more suitable for the babies that are breast and formula fed. would have had to know that before and the gold formulas have more anti something um pretty much lass chance of making them sick. but they also said some babies just cant handle some formulas and it just takes time to find the one your baby likes.

KAR, KARICE - i had the same delema today at the shops but i had a look on the back of the bos and there is a size missing but with some lookin they dont stock it. the sizes are ment to go newborn , junior , then crawler but the junior isnt there so i did the same as you guys i bought the newborn and a box of crawler or whatever the next size up was that they stocked. they have that inbetween size in the 52 bag packs in the baby isle if you need them.

eeyor the donkey - we over here are using NUK they seem to work pretty well but i have worked out i HATE the brown NUK teats they suck but the clear ones are good. just thought i would let you know.

As for the DH convos going on mine doesnt complain about being tired but i can tell the new baby thing is wearing on him as everytime he gets up to feed emily she ends up just screaming and not settling and going to sleep but as soon as he gives her to me i have her asleep within 15 minutes. i dont know what it is i do but yeah. so i feel bad that she is like that and i can tell it really frustrates him.

well anyway drama with my family my mum has just been diagnosed with addisons dieses hard to explain but you are welcome to look it up but anyway it can kill her if she ignores it and she is on hormone replacement tablets which at the moment arent working and blah blah blah anyway i have my mum calling me in tears with it all so ontop of all this i am actually very happy which is wierd from me i dont think i need to worry about the PND as i am happier than what i was before preg i am laughing and stuff now which is fun.

well better run have cleaned the whole house and now need to go and do dinner and em will be awake soon so need to get that sorted and fold some washing and dry some others and um well i think that is it but ill prob find more mwahahahahahahah i dont know what is wrong with me i have SOOOOOO much energy but i have noticed i am very very snarly when i first wake up for ems feeds.

anyway im off chat to you all later hope everything picks up.

OH and for the lady that is saying she is a bad mother. YOU ARE NOT it is just hard with a new born no matter how many children you have especially if there is soem gap inbetween them so give yourself a break and breathe leave everything and just veg for a bit.

Karice

05-04-2009, 14:03

Kar - its so funny how being a mum can totally change your personality isn't it? I had a giggle when I read your post about stressing about what size nappies to buy when you used to make major decisions at work. I'm in the same boat. DP got a bit cranky at the supermarket with me yesterday coz i took about 10 mins trying to decide what washing powder was best value for money...hahaha...before I had Cadence I used to work as an assistant contract manager for a major construction company :laughing: if only they could see me now... total baby brain...:dizzy:

LivingINhope

05-04-2009, 19:34

Sorry girls I am reading but am going to do a selfish post, there are to many posts to reply to since I was last here.

Well the BF consultant was great and I worked out Lucius was not putting his head back far enough to take enough boob into his mouth. We are by no means 100% perfect at it yet but have improved and my nipples are finally healing. I was told to use 1/4 teaspoon of bicarb and 1/2 cup of warm/very warm water and some cotton balls to bath my nipples and then use EBM, that plus right attachment is making so much difference.

It makes me feel happier and more on top of things also, today DS1 had a great day with hardly nay tantrums and DH is also on his best behavior. We are booking DH into psychologist ASAP we have the referral and he has realized how much work he has ahead of him with his issues, but its a good start.

Lucius is much more settled now that attachment is right also, he did 2 4hour stints over night last night and although we use a dummy to settle him sometimes he doesn't need it all the time which is good.

NAPPIES
I noticed there was a nappy discussion, I go through between 8-12 a day. My cloth nappies I made were to big so we have been using disposable, I think by next week (hopefully) he should fit the cloth nappies. I use Aaldi nappies with both boys a friend of mine got me onto them, they are pretty much the same as huggies in terms of how much they hold great for big wetters.

Well lets hope we all get a good night sleep tonight and that the babies only feed every 4 hours or so, sound slike we have all done the hard yards with sleep deprivation:hugs:

LeeJ

05-04-2009, 20:43

completly selfish post...

So we're trying to get josh settled for the night, i made dh go and get an anti reflux formula, we just cant cope with another night of crying, we got josh to sleep at 5.30 this morning, so we went to bed, he woke at 10.30 (oh my, 4 staright hours of sleep! i have not have that!!!), back down at 11.30, back up at 1.30, back down by 2, back up at 3.00, we stayed in bed the whole day:eek:, after being awake from 9pm till 5.30am, we figured, screw it, we NEED this sleep, so yeah, our days are a bit a** about...
We see the gp tomorrow, after doing a quick google, it sure sounds like josh has reflux, the poor taker is down to 30-40ml feeds, every hour or so, and throwing up, gagging, crying, its so not nice here at the moment.

ok, wish us luck for sleep tonight!

sending lots of sleep vibes to everyone!!!

nae1709

06-04-2009, 07:41

OMG, so my content little princess has all but disappeared. We had a tough day with her yesterday. She hardly slept all day & was very unsettled. We even resorted to taken her for a 45 mins drive just so she would fall asleep. It worked right up until we got home & took her out of her car seat. She only sleep for 2 hrs at a time last night as well.

I'm not sure but I think it has something to do with breastfeeding. I think we've both become lazy with our positioning & attachment. I'm going back to read Karice's post from a few days go.

Does anyone know how I can get a lactation consultant to visit me on the Gold Coast? Is it through the ABA? Do you need to be a subscriber & does it cost much??????

Karice

06-04-2009, 08:26

nae - :hugs:hang in there hun, here's a quick recap on the best positioning that we found at the breastfeeding clinic. Have bub cradle hold, she'll need to be horizontal with her tum pressed up tight against yours. Line your nipple up with her nose and hold her around the back of the neck. If she's hungry she'll automatically throw her head back and open up her mouth wide to take the breast with her chin nice and tucked down. Make sure your boobie shoulder is nice and relaxed to help let down. When your let down happens, if she starts to pull back then you might need to let the fast flow (if you have a strong let down) spill out into a towel, with the palm of your hand pressed against the top of your boob just above the areola. When the flow slows down (usually no more than 10 mls) reattach bub.

Also, as weird as this sounds, I've found that if Cady is not hungry but really really tired then she finds it even harder to fall asleep and she screams the house down, goes tense, figits, clenches her fists, arches her back. All along I was sure she had bad wind or was getting reflux but the nurse at the breastfeeding clinic said no, she's just over-stimulated. We found that a tight swaddle, taking her to her room, giving her a bit of a rock (and using a dummy if need be :rolleyes:) got her used to the cues for "sleep time" and she seems to be settling quicker every day. She's started to be able to drift off to sleep IN the cot and not in my arms, I just have to sit with her for a while and pat her tummy. It takes ALOT of patience, and its not something i recommend trying at 3am, but over the last week we've slowly been getting there and she's a completely different baby to a week ago, and I feel like a new woman coz I know when she'll be asleep and for how long now so I can plan my sleep also :D

I'm not sure if its the same for all bubs, but I find if she's been awake for much more than an hour at a time then she starts to get cranky and its time for sleep again