March08 mums- tummy and teething troubles!

[fitnfortyone]

new thread for Merry...

[littleducks]

mmh- well done! that is impressive and thanks for the tips

i am starting at the gym today, have a postnatal exercise class booked, as i am allowed to take baby, childcare arranged for dd, its only for an hour but am starting to get nervous now....hope it works though i am starting to put on weight, blooming breastfeeding gives me the appetite of a horse!

i had abit of a shopping disater yesterday.... dd didnt really cooperate with shoe fitting, instead she ran around, hid etc. (my god it was embarassing) at one point after mutiple apologies to the shop assistant i ended up getting NO NEW SHOES, i then realised i had lost my phone, went back searched while holding dd wrist to prevent escape....eventually it appeared under the fleece pram liner went to pay for toiletries, then they had no barcode, shop assistant reckoned the cost £30 i said i thought it was £12 much faffing later a catologue found (£12.95) but by then dd is graabbing thing nd throwing on floor glass bottle bounced, so maybe was plastic so both are crying and im picking one up at a time till the others screams become unbearable

nice jl lady points out feeding room so i try to make a retreat from public view, not before dropping handbag getting strap wrapped in buggy wheel and contents strewn over the floor

may not go shopping for a while, at least it was out of town so i doubt i will ever see anybody there ever again!

[3madboys]

ooh a new thread

littleducks that sounds like a nightmare we all have those days tho, hey ho.

have to say that i have been taking the opporutuntiy to leave the elder three with dp and just take baby if i need to go to town etc, the thought of a shopping trip with ALL FOUR in tow scares me, which is not good given that they all need new summer shoes........ that will be fun....

have to say life here is good at the moment tho, R has settled into a lovely routine at night time, bottle at 8 when he goes down, then i wake him at midnight ish when i go to bed, he only takes about 30z then tho and then he sleeps through till 7am and has a bottle and this morning went back to sleep after that bottle till 8:30 how fab is that

he is sleeping well during the day too, i can generally just lie him in his pram or put him in his car seat when he seems tired and he will suck his thumb and doze off on his own given what terrible sleepers the elder three were i find it almost unbelievable that he is soooo good and keep having to pinch myslelf.

hope your trip continues to go well marchmum

[indiechick]

Is anyone else experiencing teething troubles already? I thought dd was starting a bit early, but the gums are definately very red.

[merryberry]

thanks fn41! littleducks i hate that kind of trip. i get so hot and bothered and we end up in a black cab home, wasting cash! and yes to the teething here as well. luckily gg is a trooper and just getting himself through it (swollen gums, reddening arse, rivers of drool, deffo learning to chew for relief. My nipples. argh). wonder how long this will take, months? hope weeks this time.

[HolidaysQueen]

Littleducks - enjoy the class! I'm starting in earnest with lots of swimming on holiday (9 days to go - yay!) and then buggyfit and pilates when I get back. Honestly...

When are babies supposed to start teething? In my naive new mum way i thought it wouldn't be until at least 5-6 months...

DS's night sleep has been bizarre all week -still only wakening once per night but the last 4 nights this has been at 2.30, 5, 3 and then 6... No correlation with how well he has fed or gone down or slept during the day. Anyone else have a completely erratic baby?

I've started using the breastfeeding cushion again the last couple of days and I think it has helped him get into a better position - bf much less fraught with it so I think we'll use it for a while longer.

[e14mum]

i am feeling so much better this week. have had my mom here which has helped so much as she's great at talking and listening and I've had a good chance to chew through how i feel. Also helps that dd has been sleeping well
MNFM- thanks for the tips! Hope you're enjoying being away.

[imjin100]

HQ - mine did exactly the same and then as if by magic starting sleeping till 7.00. We had at least a week of total random times and I wondered what on earth was going on and then ....a random 7 am - and 7am has now been the wake up time for over a week...may not be the answer for you but just thought I'd give you a little ray of hope!

[fitnfortyone]

last night LO was really grizzly, either because he was 2hours later than normal going to bed due to spending the day at grans or else the teething issue...since he was born with some teeth he may always have cried due to this, but they seem to be hurting more. Apparently it can go on for a couple of months before the tooth breaks through?
Anyway, gave him an Ashton & Parsons teething powder last night and don't know if that's the reason why, but he had a feed at 7.10 last night, grizzled till 8ish then I had to wake him up after 7 this morning to make sure he gets enough milk today!

Bet he doesn't do the same tonight though

Anyone know how you're supposed to manage practically, the powders are supposed to be 1/2 dose for under 6mths, but i end up either throwing half of it round him rather than getting on his tongue, or throwing it all over the floor trying to get the powder split before giving to him!

[merryberry]

with ds1 i kept a paper from previous dose, took out half from next dose, shaped it up into a tight little funnel and applied liberally to gums, tongue. And chin

[MissingMyHeels]

DD is definitely having some teething issues and I can see the teeth really low down and even feel one! I am using dentinox which seems to work well.

Getting lots of proper laughs now which are fabulous but I have perforated my ear drum following a cotton bud incident and am in agony Oh and DP is being bloody useless.

[skidoodle]

hello everyone,

littleducks my word that does sound a nightmare. It would have made me cry. I am very bad at shopping. I only have one DD and I made my mother travel 100 miles to come shopping with me when I needed to get things.

HQ I was going to say what imjin did - weird waking times, sometimes early, sometimes late were a precursor to DD starting to sleep through. She went to 5am for a few days and then to 7am. I was freaked out by her sleeping from 11.30 to 7am as it means she's effectively dropped a feed but I'm not about to start waking her

BTW you were saying your DS is putting on 3.5 oz a week or so. I think that's good. DD was doing 5oz a week but had her weighed yesterday and it was only 2.5 each week for the last fortnight. She was 8lbs 1oz at birth and is now 11lbs 15oz at 11 weeks. I'm a little worried but the HV I saw told me everything was fine. She's also a breastfeeding counsellor so seemed to know her stuff re: weight gain for breastfed babies. Despite her assurances I have been thinking all day that DD looks a little scrawny. Of course before I had her weighed she looked fine

We are having some signs of teething - DD has chewed her forefingers and the sides of her hands until they're all red and a little swollen. Is this normal? Is there any remedy for it?

Also, thicko alert here, but what is tummy time? Is it just putting your baby on their tummy? Why do you do it? How often is it done?

[turtle23]

Quick survey: Those who've taken LO to cranial osteopath-did you feel it made a difference and why did you go?

[skidoodle]

oh turtle, haven't used cranial osteopath, but meant to say DD and I had a long period where she could only latch on when we were lying down, so I sympathise. I felt so tied down by it. Not unreasonably, since I could hardly take her out and then lie down on the ground and feed her

Anyway, it sounds like you've got it in hand with mixed feeding etc but just wanted to say I've been there.

[MumOfBillyTheKid]

HQ - we too have had random nights. Have given up in the last week on waking at 10/11pm as it only resulted in LO waking twice in night rather than once (or maybe twice) if left to sleep till woke naturally. Last night, DS had feed at 6.45pm, settled about 8pm and then slept right through until 6am!!! Couldn't believe it.... (I kept waking to check on him!) let's see what happens tonight! (also see if I have concrete b@@bs full of milk again by morning)

Turtle - my DS went to see chiropractor (sp?) - we took him because we thought he had colic early on (now realise it was just fussy evening time/cluster feeding), however they did solve issue where DS was crying when being changed/liked sleeping on side - we didn't realise it was a solvable issue (bad parents!) besides wondering if maybe he disliked his changing mat! - turned out he had 3 sections of his spine out of line) - he was ECS. Defo made a difference to us - DS is a very happy boy now and is not at all upset when moved/picked up etc. I would heartily recommend anyone take their LO for a checkup - it can do no harm and here, if at first session/assessment they find nothing wrong, they discharge you straight away.

[turtle23]

skidoodle-no, mixed feeding not going well. We managed one bottle total. He wont take it and gave myself til this morning to reconsider the cold turkey bit. still thinking.

[spugs]

just a quick hello, hands are full at the minute so not a lot of mn time
i still havent had sex feel like to much of a whale and very self concious (sp?) never been like this before so a bit dh hasnt mentioned it yet but its been 11 weeks ffs,

[wearehipsandmakers]

DS comes running into the kitchen yesterday saying 'She's talking, she's talking'. I am obviously a little sceptical but genius runs in the family , so ask, 'what's she saying?'. He says 'egg-leur'.
I guess I don't need to ring the Guiness Book of Records just yet.

[merryberry]

osteo yes for both babies. ds1 colic was calmed down a lot, gg's head turn sorted in one visit and generally he was very perked up by having head shape worked on - was parallegogram shaped from very long pre-labour - now has a nice normal looking bonce and is a very, very, very content wee fellow.

[merryberry]

very much recommend you try it turtle worst can happen is you waste some cash, they assess 1) whole body alignment re: bones and 2) something more weird sounding about checking energy flow. but hey gets results for us and causes no harm.

[HolidaysQueen]

turtle - sorry bottle feeding not going well Have you tried different teats? I think Mothercare do one that they claim is more like a nipple (not sure how!) so something like that may make the transition to bottles easier for your DS. I guess he is used to soft flesh rather than soft silicone so just needs to get used to the different texture.

[HolidaysQueen]

the other thing turtle - he's been taking EBM from you before, hasn't he (seem to remember you talking about this before)? So maybe it is the formula he doesn't like. Perhaps worth trying a different formula, or doing mixed formula/EBM bottles for a while.

[HolidaysQueen]

skidoodle - thank you for sharing your story. It really helped My main problem is that in my antenatal group the other 5 babies (all bf) have put on between 3.5 and 6lbs in the same amount of time that DS has put on just 2lbs so that is my main comparator group. I just find it depressing when I meet up and they all talk about how much weight the babies have put on. I want to scream "but how tall is your baby?" cos mine is lovely and tall and slim, but nobody thinks that is appropriate for a baby. It's all about the chubbiness...

One of the girls said to me the other day "oh your baby is so small and cute still. mine is just so big now". She meant it as a compliment but of course it just hit a raw nerve - her baby was over 1lb smaller than mine at birth and is now 2.5lb heavier

But I am feeling a lot better about it this week. He has fed well, slept well and is totally adorable. He smiles all the time - much more so than the other babies in my group - so he is clearly a very happy, lovely chap

[turtle23]

HQ-Enjoy not having a fatty...your arms get very tired!
I have tried 4 different teats/bottles so far...and he wont take EBM now either. I imagine he'd be just fine if I went away for a few days. He'd miss a feed or two then realise that there was no alternative. Dilemma.
MB- We went yesterday morning, just wondered what others' experiences were. He didn't check his body...should he have? Just said he had locked front bit of skull, did some hand on head thingy and P slept for 4 hours, had gunk pour out of his ears and eyes and then back to normal. Oh yes, except that we had an additional wakeup last night.

[merryberry]

wow that sounds very effective for your LO sinuses etc turtle. gg's have also been under assault from his silent reflux, and i have considered taking him along for that, but it is such a faff to the family routine to get that tuesday pm appt, i've bottled it so far.

for P though, what a great start. i assume he is to have another treatment, though i've never heard of a baby have more than 4? when you go back ask him to do a check up of LOs whole skeletal alignment as well, this is more like chiropractice in a way and is the more traditional type of osteopathy. gg especially seemed to get a great deal out of some pelvic and shoulder work ours did. unless he is just a cranial sacral therapist, which i don't think they can be, i think cranio sacral is a further qual to normal osteo. anyway, they say they can tell from the movement of fluid around the skull how the whole body is doing, so you weren't short changed

[merryberry]

hq, ds1 was just like that most of the time, it is a rarer but lovely body type in babies i think. he had his chubby fatfat phase around 1 year, just before he really got motoring physically. you should see his 1 year birthday pictures, a proper little bhuddha for about 2 months only. he was a late crawler (well he never crawled, he propelled himself/punted on one knee using the other leg, like some friendly mini alien )

gg is of course your basic mini prop forward from his birth weight, but he is not putting weight on as fast as your antenatal group to look at his girth. he too is lengthening at a rate of knots instead. my main advice would be to stop getting him weighed as often and trust your eyes on his more general thrivingness so you can enjoy him the most. i'm doing that with gg, as i get and give myself some grief about him not curving up from his birthweight in traditional fashion. i'm geting hinm done every 2-3 months only.