New mum, help! Just a few questions......

[cookiemonster5678]

I will keep it short..... My baby is 3 weeks old, I'm just finding my feet with it all and have a few questions...

When did you stop feeling sad that your partner had to go back to work?

I have had a period of baby blues, that still seems to be lingering. Nothing serious, mainly just missing my partner and being reeeaaaally tired. How can i help myself to get through it? I don't think i need HV or GP intervention...

When do babies generally stop needing night feeds? My baby only wakes once, sometimes twice, and we have to wake him sometimes as he could have gone way over 4 hours with no feed. Should i let him sleep as long as he wants?

Is there anything that will help my baby to burp? My baby
can guzzle 5oz and not burp once, but occasionally then brings most of the bottle back up! Or how do i know there is no burp there?!

Thank you

[cupcake78]

Baby blues can last a while (6weeks) but should be getting better.

Let the baby sleep, get as much rest as you can when you can!

As for burping some baby's are better than others at it and its trial and error. Alternate your techniques and also know that sometimes no matter what you do winding is a waiting game.

Congratulations

[SpoonfulOfJam]

Burps- move their upper body, twist them a bit, sit ups.

[mumofboyo]

I'm only thinking of my own babies when I say this and there will be people who completely disagree but I never woke mine for a feed overnight; I always let them sleep as long as they could/wanted and fed when they woke naturally. Of course I'm only saying this because they were of a healthy weight, were bright and alert and had plenty of wet and dirty nappies. In the night we didn't go to them when they started to stir and make that squeaky noise as we found they were only stirring and often went back to sleep if we left them; we only went to them if they started crying. Note this was nighttime only and we never actually left them to cry it out; we just didn't go running in with every noise. They started reliably sleeping through from a couple of months old (give or take the odd nights when they were ill or going through a bit of a fussy period).

Dd had reflux and we were careful to wind her as much and as gently as possible. We used to lean her forwards, backwards and slowly side to side before rubbing her back. We didn't wind her straight after feeding either; instead we waited 10-20 mins wherever possible, keeping her as upright as we could, as this seemed to reduce the amount she'd bring up. It also seemed to produce better burps.

Congratulations on your new baby

[MigGril]

your question about when babies stop needed night feeds is a bit like asking how long is a piece of string. Really it varies so wildly from one baby to another anywhere from a couple of months to a couple of years, although thankfully most sleep through before one I think. But it's not always about food as later things like teething, developmental changes and illness can effect sleep to. So you may get a phase where they sleep through for a while then start waking up again.

No one can tell you what your baby will be like, all you can do is just go with the flow. And don't worry about what anyone else baby is doing as you can really compare, they are all different.

[MamaDuckling]

Hey,

I'm a first time mum too, little one is just 3 months

Agree with all the advice on burping/feeding, but thought I'd offer my thoughts on feeling low about your other half returning to work as I'm still struggling a bit with this myself!

It is hard having had a couple of blissful weeks (I found the first two weeks passed as a complete blur), and then being left 'alone' with the baby... Especially as our DS started getting trickier between 3 and 8 weeks.

If you can, plan to see someone (family, friends, HV) once a day, or plan something to do like go for a long walk with the pushchair. Structuring things to do makes my days go by a wee but quicker until husband is home - not that I'm wishing the days away.

Get your other half to help you plan any holiday time he might have to take- we've just booked a few long weekends away and having those periods of family time to look forward to is lovely.

Lastly, stay in touch with him during the daytime, we usually talk when he's on his lunch break and I tell him what we're up to, how little one has been etc.

Good luck, there will be ups and downs but it gets easier and you'll feel much happier once you have settled into some kind of routine (even if it's one for yourself rather than baby!)