April 2010 - our little bundles are here!

[lineky]

Thought I'd start a Post-Natal thread as there are so many of us now sorry about the uninspired name.
Well I am slowly realising the sleepless nights thing is no myth - VERY tired!

[HoopsAndBaby]

checking in with little Ben, who is happily asleep next to me on the sofa, hopw we get some more babies this weekend.....

am with you lineky on the sleepless nights, Ben feeds every 3 hours, am starting to feel like a cow!!

[nicnacinoonoo]

hey, kacie's settling into a routine now, (hope iv not just jinxed it) of 7.30, 12, 4, 7.30, 12, 4. dont know why she cant seem to last until 8 in the mornings and evenings but it doesnt make much difference. she seems to have her days and nights a bit mixed up at the moment though. she goes to sleep perfectly in the day but takes until about 10/10.30 to settle for the night after 7.30 feed.

hope we have some more new arrivals soon.

we went for our first big trip out today and walked to the park (about 20 mins away) so ds could play for a bit and i could get used to walking with the pram. driving has made me very lazy but want to lose this baby weight and i reckon the best way will be to go for a walk with the pram each day + it gets Kacie out in the fresh air for a bit too.

[lineky]

Hazel is good as gold during the day - feeding every 3-4 hours. BUT nights are a bit of a trial - a 10 min feed takes apx 1 1/2 hours as she just wont go back down.
Hopefully she will start to get better. Ordered a sheepskin for her to sleep on today on the advice of the midwife - fingers crossed!
with you on the walking nicnac Hazel seems to love the fresh air - we have bee out in the garden for most of the day today.

[PrincessTweetz]

Just joining in while Jude's asleep, and I have one hand on the pump!!! I have another lil night time milk monster...I'm trying to get him to feed more early evening, and then top him up with 3-5 ozs expressed milk any time between 8.30 and 9.30, but he likes his 2-3 hour feeding and changing stints, that normally start around 9ish at night...then sleeps happily during the day!! At least tonight when my eyes are struggling, I'll be thinking Lineky is doing more or less the same as me

[HoopsAndBaby]

another one here who's doing the night shift!! Well I don't have a choice as I'm all alone.......we have a little routine going, get up, change bum, bring some wind up then feed until Ben goes to sleep then I get my head down again then 2-3 hours later it starts all again, he is good though he goes straight back to sleep after his feed which I'm really thankful for.......I do feel I'm being a bit nocturnal though because I sleep during the day when Ben sleeps.......

got a bargain yesterday got a closer to nature manual breast pump for £15 from ASDA, it was reduced from £25

[lineky]

Oh lordy - Hazel was up pretty much from 1am till 9.30!!! Had a silly little suckle feed every hour and just wouldn't go down after .
DH and I became rather tense and he is still recovering. It can only get better.
princess is jude taking the bottle alright? Not causing any problems with his latch when feeding? My health visitor has davised I wait till 4 weeks but don't know if I'll survive that long.

[PrincessTweetz]

lineky he's doing fine with bottle and boob...with dd1 they advised 4 weeks, and i was adamant to wait the full 4 weeks, my mum persuaded me to try a lil earlier just to try and give her a better feed, she did fine as well, so with jude as soon as my milk came in, i started expressing...it just gives me a nice 3-4 hours where he sleeps really well...he's a nightmare with the hourly suckle feeds if i havent been able to give him a 4oz bottle amongst his night feeds as well....I'm going to try and express 4 times today, so he has 2 bottles of 3-4ozs, one in the early evening, and one before I go to bed, hopefully that will make a bit more of a difference too!! Fingers Crossed !!
He got weighed today again, and I was pleased when he put 10ozs on in a week, but today I thought the midwife had made a mistake when she said he was 8lbs 9 ozs! 5 days ago he was 7lbs 4oz...he really is a munching machine!!!!

[nicnacinoonoo]

Kacie was the same as her birth weight when she was weighed at 5 days old so must have lost and then put it back on again. midwife comes again tomorrow which will be 12 days so we will see how much she weighs then.

beginning to realize that having her before easter was not really a good idea considering there is loads of chocolate lying around my house forcing me to eat it when im trying to lose the baby fat.

[HoopsAndBaby]

hello all,

Ben and I got discharged from the midwives today and they are really happy with the way we are going......

Ben was weighted as well and he has put on 7oz in 7 days, which is great but this constant feeding is really tiring, today he has fed about 10 times already and is only feeding for about 10 minutes at a time, hopefully his lack of sleep today will mean he'll sleep a bit more tonight....bit I doubt it!!

Glad to hear mothers and babes doing well

[HoopsAndBaby]

just read through my post and meant to say 7oz in 5 days, god I'm soooooooo tired

[spaghettina]

Hello, just checking in. We are having plenty of sleepless nights too, Isabella tends to nap for a couple of good 2-3 hour stretches during the day and wake up just when we'd like to be going to bed. Last night I didn't get a wink of sleep until 4am, then she slept more or less soundly until about 9. "Sleep when the baby sleeps" they say - I did get a couple of hours this afternoon but it doesn't really make up for the sleep lost at night does it?

When she's awake she wants to feed more or less every hour and a half, with each feed lasting 30-40 minutes. Pretty tiring (esp with one cracked nipple)...so I'm considering buying an electric breast pump this week to give me some freedom so I can get DP to give her the odd bottle. Princess, you make it sound pretty easy, which is encouraging! Any hints or tips would be welcome.

[nicnacinoonoo]

lineky have you had any luck with the sheepskin? i have just ordered one to try.

[lineky]

nicnacinoonoo Sheepskin has gone down very well with Hazel - had her first night on it last night and it went well. I want one too as ridiculously luxurious
Last night was best night slepp yet. Health Visitor suggested I didn't feed her in bed, as I had been, but came down to my normal chair to ensure a good latch and not taking in too much air etc. Simple advice but it seemed to work (touch wood) I think I got 5-6hours sleep last night
I am making sure I go to bed with her after her last feed so 10-11ish to ensure I get at least a couple of hours then.
She's put on another 5oz too so she is obviously getting plenty of food.

[chegirlWILLbeserene]

Hi all

Just a quick question.

Anyone else horribly bloated? I have been lucky in the past in that my stomach has pretty much gone down in the first week after having baby. Its huge this time and a bit tender.

I suspect its more to do with bowels than anything else but its getting on my nerves. I am fine otherwise and raring to go but this is bringing me down a bit.

May I ask what your stomachs look/feel like?

Thanks.

[HoopsAndBaby]

mines like a plate of jelly, all wobbly and stretch-marked uurrgghhh, not bloated though, have you managed to poo yet?

[nicnacinoonoo]

mine was bloated but has gone down now (2 weeks after cs). agree with hoops on what mine looks like now too. my hips still havent gone down as i cant fit in any of my old clothes yet, even the ones that were quite big on me before. i think its definitely taking longer this time than it did last time. trying desperately to watch what i eat but some food is just too yummy my tummy was very tender the first few days after when the midwives were prodding it but not anymore. still have a stone to lose

[lineky]

Belly very wobbly but managed to avoid stretch marks.
Hazel sleeping quite well I am amazed by how noisy she is though! She grunts, groans, whistles, squeeks, pops and wheezes - you always know she's there At the mo she is gurggling away - sound asleep- in her pram.
Hope everyone is getting some sleep and enjoying their little bundles.

[ReneRusso]

hi everyone, hope you all had a good night. I was up at 130 and then 500 but little one went back to bed quite quickly after feeding bless her.

chegirl, my stomach is disgusting. I look about 5 or 6 months pregnant. I wish I could say it was a bit of bowel congestion! But I have quite bad diastasis, so it's unrestrained flab

[lineky]

ReneRusso very that she goes back down quickly - that's Hazel's downfall ath the mo - onlt 2 feeds through the night but each takes 1-2hours by the time she settles back. now trying soothing music to coax her back to slumber land!

[HoopsAndBaby]

anyone else's little bundle really snuffly? sometimes it sounds as though Ben can't breathe, I asked the HV and she said it's perfectly normal but am quite worried........

On the night feeding, I put Ben back in his carry-cot even if he's not quite asleep and he always nods off and he's down to just 2 feeds 0130 and around 0400/0500....so am very happy with this.

He had his hearing test the other day and passed with flying colours, HV is happy with him so don't have to see her again until he is 6 weeks

Glad to hear everyone is doing fine and well, can't quite beieve that Ben is nearly 3 weeks old!!

[PrincessTweetz]

Hoops..Jude is also quite snuffly..I asked midwife aboutit and she said it was just rubbish coming out of him, but even now, he's almost 4 weeks (omg....that has flown by!!!) and he still a snuffly lil dude, although he is better than he was. Seems to get worse when he's warm too, but he's ok otherwise.
Also very of the good night time sleepers!!! I have a little night time snuggle bunny...he can settle by himself perfectly well during the day..providing he's content with the feeds he has, and will even usually settle down for about a 4 hour chunk around 1pm ish...but night time is a different story!! Some nights he will feed for only 20 mins, and settle quite quickly, but he normally always wakes pretty constantly from around 2.30 am, and needs to eat for about 10 mins, then sleep for about 30-40 mins, then eat again....then I'm up with dd1 at around 6ish...I still haven't managed to do any ironing since Jude's been born Considering the amount of clothes in the basket, I can't believe I can never find anything decent to wear!!
Lineky, I also avoided stretchmarks again this time...and I've lost almost 2 stones of the weight I put on, but people take great joy in telling me I 'still have a bit of a gut on me'!!! Good job I was hoping to keep some of the weight I put on during pregnancy, otherwise I'd be a complete mess lol.Although if you happened to catch sight of me these days, you'd be forgiven in thinking that was exactly what I was...a complete mess!!!

[Neeko]

Hi. Just checking in to say hello. Have to pick up DD1 from nursery so no time to post but pleased to see from your posts that i'm not alone in being shattered!

[dani87]

hi all checking in with Ebony-Mae

well im absolutly shattered! had infection so been on antibiotics got a scan weds 2 see if everything settled down.

Ebony-Mae lost her birth weight then struggled 2 put it back on she was weighed today (3weeks old) and finally caught up shes now 7lb 6oz! could be down to not drinking well finally got her to take 3oz bottle every 3hrs as before she was only taking 1-1/2 oz and also had to change the teat 2 medium flow as she was falling asleep midway through a bottle.

glad mummys and babies doing well

[Bettymum]

Hello girls, just a quick one so I don't lose you all!
Alexander is doing well, he is BFing brilliantly which is making me a bit sad in a way because DD struggled and struggled and it didn't get "easy" till about 3 months, this time it's just been fab and he's getting loads of milk so I just think poor little DD no wonder she was skinny! However she's making up for it now, she's a 2 year old eating monster. He's still asleep now in his little hammock, tucked up and snuffling away .
Che with you on the stomach, it's gone down a lot in the last week but I can't stand to touch it as it's all crepey and weird feeling. I'm slathering it in body butter in the hope that it'll moisturise it back to normal.

[chegirlWILLbeserene]

Hi All,

Thank you all for your belly feedback
Mine is a bit better now. I think I was expecting it all to go back to normal like it did before. I have obviously pushed my luck this time!

Snuffly is normal with new babies. A few of mine were very snuffly for the first few weeks.

Hoops thanks for reminding me about the hearing test! I had forgotten all about it and noone has mentioned it. Because I had a homebirth Rudy didnt get his in hospital so I will have to mention it when I see the MW on Thursday.

I am currently hoping praying that Rudy doesnt get chickenpox. My 2yr old DS came out with CP on the Sunday after he was born. He was fine and is now back to normal but dreading little Ru getting it.