We came, we saw, we frolicked. 
Now our PFB has arrived and we can begin the stressful befuddled guiltridden exhausting wonderful journey of parenthood!
(Or at the very least we can stop bothering the antenatal bunch until they join us!)
Please or to access all these features
Please
or
to access all these features
Join our Postnatal Clubs forum to find parenting advice for newborns.
Post-natal clubs
The Final Fruition of the Frolicking Forays for the First Time Frolickers
739 replies
Spirael · 30/09/2010 16:18
OP posts:
Spirael ·
05/10/2010 09:45
Hi all! :)
I am still around... Just been manic busy lately as Mindy appears to have reached the infamous 3 Month Growth Spurt and hasn't stopped feeding for 4 days during waking hours. 
She still sleeps well overnight though, 10pm-7am. Phewf!
Looking forward to seeing all the imminent arrivals in here soon. I hope everything goes well at the births!
Do you think we need to start an attendance list? What details should we put on? 
OP posts:
pixiestix ·
05/10/2010 13:31
Hellooooooo!
[Pixie drags her flabby, stretchmarked belly, tender c-section scar and cracked, bleedy nipples onto the thread and collapses in a corner with a big grin]
God, this first week after birth lark is a bit hard, aint it?!! I look like crap!
Thats really scary about Matilda's eye November. Glad they have sorted it out quickly. They just seem so fragile, don't they - its impossible to know what you are supposed to get super worried about and what you are supposed to be blase about. Teg threw up some blood the other day and DH and I had a massive freak out. Called the emergency midwife and she was like "Meh, yeah, its just from your nipples". She couldn't have been any less interested and we were sobbing wrecks!
Holy cow Spirael, I can't believe Mindy is still such a milk monster! You must have the patience of a saint. I have really had enough of breastfeeding already and we are only on Day 9. Its just so sore and tiring and boring! But I am going to perservere. I feel like its not too much to put up with in exchange for this gorgeous little girl. [love love love emoticon]
Wow that Mindy is three months already!!
WhiteRoses ·
08/10/2010 21:16
Hi,
Just popping in very briefly. Hope everyone's well. Poor you November - that must've been terrifying! Spireal - you're supposed to be assuring us that breastfeeding gets easier! Lol! No, it's all worth it to know you're doing the best thing for your baby, isn't it? Pixie - you might already know this, but I didn't and it helped me when my nipples were at their most bloody/scabby/painful... Have you tried expressing a tiny bit of milk just before Tegan latches on? A midwife gave me that tip on Day 10 (about time!) and it made a huge difference. It just softens your nipples a little and the latching on isn't quite so bad...
Things with us are fine. Will give a better update when I have more time! Talk soon (if my son lets me!) :)
Spirael ·
14/10/2010 12:06
Ok, I'm back! :) I survived the growth spurt!
It lasted about a week, couldn't get the milk into Mindy quick enough for the duration. Now that we've come out the other side though, breastfeeding is a lot easier. She only takes about 10-15 minutes per side (instead of 45!) about 6 times per day and it doesn't hurt at all now, it doesn't even prickle at the initial letdown.
I also barely leak, except for first thing in the morning when I'm quite full... Especially this morning as Mindy managed 8:30pm - 7:30am last night!! She's just turned 14 weeks.
So keep going, BFers! [waves pompoms] The first 6 weeks are the rough part, then it starts getting easier.
OP posts:
Spirael ·
20/10/2010 11:55
[watches the tumbleweed] Pretty quiet in here at the moment!
More babies were born recently and yet more are due shortly, so soon we'll hopefully get more people chattering away! :)
I think second time frolickings are quite likely in the Spirael household, Ladylou. 
Having Mindy hasn't put us off more children! Buuut... Not for a while yet. I want a 2-3 year gap, if at all possible!
OP posts:
WhiteRoses ·
20/10/2010 19:01
I'm here! Just not had time/free hands to do a proper post! Will get round to it soon though, I hope - feel I have so much to tell you all... But please write, the rest of you - I may not be able to type and feed, but I can read and feed! Hope you're all well - off to check new arrivals on pregnancy forum now! Catch up soon. x
WhiteRoses ·
21/10/2010 13:25
How did I miss pics?! Soooooo gorgeous! Happy and healthy looking!
Spirael ·
23/10/2010 15:16
Hee, thanks all! Make sure to post pics of your LOs up too, Mindy will get shy if she's the only one!
OP posts:
Don’t want to miss threads like this?
Weekly
Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!
Log in to update your newsletter preferences.
You've subscribed!
WhiteRoses ·
25/10/2010 18:38
Hi everyone.
Hope you're all doing well? And another huge congratulations to Hermya, who'll hopefully be joining us here soon.
Well, my little man finally fell asleep just there at 5pm, after being awake constantly since before 9am, so here's hoping for a few hours' peace! And a chance to get on MN! Can't believe he stayed awake so long. Usually a six hour stretch is as much as he goes! But I can't complain, cause I've been blessed with a baby that's slept brilliantly since he was a few days old (anywhere between 5 and 8.5hrs a night) Lucky me!
Anyway, things are mostly going very well. My 9lb 5.5oz baby is now (5wks on) a huge big lump who has now outgrown his 0-3mth baby gros! He weighed 11lb 11oz at his check last week, so God knows what he'll have put on by tomorrow!
I'm doing fine. Feeling much fitter so I think my iron levels must be back up again, though haven't had them checked yet. And I'm much less sore. Though, do you know what? See how I had a ventouse delivery in the end? Well I was gutted about it, cause I'd wanted to do it all naturally, and I actually asked had I not pushed hard enough, cause I felt quite upset about it. The answer I was given was that it wasn't unusual to have an assisted delivery, and that my baby was very big. Anyway, it was only after a couple of weeks that DH had LO in his arms and said "see that, that's the face LO was making when I first saw him, as he was coming out of you". Turns out my 9lb 5.5oz baby was also back to back - had the health visitor confirm it! No bloody wonder I found that last bit hard! And there was me looking at LO's swollen head and feeling guilty all the time! Wouldn't you have thought someone might've shared that information with me?! I know it all happened very quickly, with me arriving at hospital fully dilated and pushing, but still... It would have been nice to know. Very peed off!
Oh, and while I'm off on a rant... Bloody health visitor. Asked her two weeks ago why my left boob was hurting and why the milk flow seemed a bit slow. She reckoned it was to do with my positioning and attachment, cause I'm right handed. A week later, I was worse and asked again, and she suggested a blocked duct (which I'd wondered about in the first place but figured she'd have mentioned if it was a possiblilty!) Anyway, have since unblocked the duct and bf no longer hurts! Grr! Silly woman! If only she'd suggested that in the first place!
Anyway, now that I've got that off my (enormous 36K !) chest, I'll get on with telling you the real reason I've been putting off posting.
At ten days old, we had a visit out of the blue from a specialist dietician from our local children's hospital. The results had come back from LO's Guthrie test, and it turns out he has Phenylketonuria. It's a genetic condition (both DH and I are carriers of a duff gene) and is very rare (6-8 babies a year born with it in the whole country). And our little man has it. It's (in very simple form) an intolerance to protein and the treatment is a lifelong, very restricted diet. Without treatment, Lo would be badly disabled, so I should be (and am) grateful that, with such early diagnosis and treatment, he will be a perfectly fit, healthy and normal little boy/man, who just eats a little differently. But it is so unfair. At the moment, LO's having twice-weekly blood tests (which I'm having to do :( ), and is on a protein-free prescription formula, to supplement his intake of breastmilk, in order that he takes less from me (breastmilk contains protein, albeit not much, but more than he's able to handle). Anyway, later on, the blood tests will hopefully be weekly, which is good, but the diet will become worse. All sorts of things are out of bounds, and it has been hard to think that LO will probably never visit McDonald's, or have birthday cake at a friend's party, or choose which Easter egg he'd like, or eat a Christmas dinner, or go on holiday and have an ice-cream... He'll be on a vegan diet, but will have other restrictions too. Ugh, it's just horrible. But anyway. I'm rambling a lot. I just haven't felt right about posting and saying that he's fine, when obviously that's not strictly true, but at the same time, I haven't had the time or (physical or emotional) energy to try and explain things.
But, horrible as the whole thing's been and will be, I do have to keep thinking positive. My baby's just gorgeous, healthy in every other way, growing brilliantly - better than most - and he's going to have all the support we, and the rest of the family can possibly give him.
Right, that was a good old-fashioned long post from me! It'll probably kill the thread completely, cause no one'll have the time or energy to read it! Lol! But hopefully not. With everything up to date, it'd be nice to be able to post a bit more frequently again, and happy posts, rather than "bad news" ones!
bunnygirl80 ·
25/10/2010 23:43
roses you know we all love to read your long posts, and it looks like you've had a lot to tell us. 
Sorry to hear your little boy's got PKU, getting an unexpected diagnosis like that must have come as such a shock to you and your DH. It must seem so unfair at the moment, but at least he's been diagnosed early so there's been no long term damage done, and he will grow up to be completely healthy.
Has anyone offered to put you in touch with any kind of support group? It might be a bit early now, but eventually it might be good to have contact with other families living with the same condition, and for your little boy to meet other children who are on the same limited diet as him, so he knows he's not alone.
Please create an account
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.