10/10 Babies - Come out, come out wherever you are!!!

[Hermya321]

, come on little babies, you know you want to come out and play!!!

Look we even have toys all ready and set up for you all!!

Stats

Gals - what are the Guidelines for bf and alcohol? Is it ok to have a mouthful of vino (and I mean a mouthful, not a glass) or not? Or if you fancy a glass of two should you express etc etc ?

I have a pump but how do I sterilize the relevant bits etc?

Silver congratulations! a mouthful is not going to hurt. To sterilise the pump just wash it and drop it in sterilising solution for the recommended time. Either 15 or 30 mins minimum depending on which solution/tablets you use.

Hermya, have you got ABs? Get them asap if not. Mastitis is hell. Also recommend the cabbage leaves for general wearing, and hot flannels followed by breast masage to deal with the blocked duct.

silver I have a microwave steriliser. V simple & keeps sterile if you don't open it until you use it.

Only up once in the night. Feeding laying down now hence the free hands! Fed easily from difficult breast at half two in the morning. Feel like supermum

Thanks for all the congratulations! nymph that's great news only being up once!! We are still on 4 times a night. I've forgotton what sleep is. Hope everyones enjoying their babies :) xx

Can anyone tell me when my snotty baby will stop being snotty? I think it is affecting latch now. She has gone from brilliant to spluttering milk up at me during the initial letdown stage. Hence feeding every 2hrs still. The snot is so high up I rarely see any :(

Nymph- soundsnlike you are in
your stride!

Alcohol- I have a small glass immediately after a feed, but to be fair I very very rarely drink these days.

Better go and get Ds ready for football!

Think last night was luck rather than her being more settled.the timings just fitted! It's usually 2 feeds.

Today's top tip

Sleepsuits with built in mittens! Dd3 keeps having v cold hands at night now she is sleeping in hands up position.

I try to use the built in mittens too Nymph to stop DD scratching her face and she also sleeps in the 'hands up don't shoot me' position! I have been given some sleepsuits without mittens and i have mittens from Asda, but they can come off easily.

I was up once in the night too, but for 2.5 hours!

nymph well done you!!!

DS took his first bottle of EBM from DH this morning which allowed me to get another hours sleep. I think this may have saved my sanity as DS was really fuzzy last night. He was up from 10 - 3am constantly on and off the breast. All I can say is God bless the makers of breast pumps.

elsa fussing or just one long feed?

hermya lie ins are good

We had a lazy start then we did an hour moving stuff round the garden while dd3 slept in the pram (snowsuit & blanket!)

Nymph pretty much one long feed until the last 15 mins when she was wide awake and i was trying to settle her before going back to bed.

I have to physically get up and go into another room as her feeding is so noisy she wakes DH (and there's no point in us both being up) and i keep falling asleep if I stay in bed and the head lolling thing isn't nice.

Well done Hermya. I tried giving DD some expressed milk last night, but the flow from the bottle was too fast for her and she tried hard but it was choking her. I felt awful. And the teats were newborn slow flow. What did you use? Oh and how much did you manage to express over what time?

That's slightly better than fussing then elsa v draining though!

Elsa you've comforted me with the latch thing, since we started topping up with the bottle (cos of TOby's weight gain being slow and trying to keep him off formula) he seems to have forgotten how to latch on nicely. I worry he's not getting much of anything at all sucking my nip as if it were the bottle teat, though it's not very uncomfortable for me (thank God) He was such a feed monster the last couple of days I thought I'd go mad but seems to have settled down a bit last night/today. Midwife tomorrow for weighing, hope he's gained something decent this time...poor kid.

Nymph re cups we got given a funky little one in hospital like a dolly's jug, can you ask the MW or someone? Very hard to give the milk that way I find though, he gets so chokey.

Silver congratulations! Yes, it's all easier in hosp - maybe cos they do the cooking?!

Seashells sorry about the snottiness, DS is snotty at night, most odd...

Am currently sterilising by boiling (very retro) but I guess we'll need to get more organised if we're to continue using bottles for EBM.... Back to the BF clinic on Weds....

Toby screams his head off at every nappy change - anyone else's LO do that?

Floozie Yeah I've got some AB, the only thing is they're making DS very irritable at the moment. Am just praying my way through the next few days.

Elsa I've used the Tommee Tippee ones, but I've also got some breastflow ones as well to try him with. Have you tried them at all? Also have you got a spare room where you can lye down at all. Can you feed lying down at all, I only figured out how to when I stumbled across this website. It was so much more chilled when I did that.

Seashells Have you tried the nasel aspirator or sticking him in the bathroom with you when you have a bath or a shower.

Dilly Yeah DS does that, he hates being naked. We've just found that if you put Florence and the Machine on he'll be quiet.

dilly dd3 doesn't scream but clearly doesn't trust us when she is naked

hermya that's great - I'm digging that cd out now... ;0) nymph is it cos she thinks you'll take pics and show everyone on her 18th b'day ;0)

hello all! congratulationsxavi- well done on your birth story. Love the name Finn too. Congrats Silver welcome to the other side! How overdue were you eventually?

Wrt to some of the bf discussion, I am using a Philips Avent steriliser as I don't have a microwave and it is fab. I was cupfeeding (got cups from the hospital) but we have graduated onto teats now. I use the ones that came with the steriliser and they have been fine. Thanks sam for reassuring me this wouldn't affect his latch- in fact, since last time I posted the majority of Harry's feeds have been proper boob ones. I'm sooooo much happier .I think that once the pressure of having to feed from the breast was off, since I could do ebm, we have both relaxed. It still takes a while to get his latch right, but at least he want to do it now and isn't fighting any more. He's a child transformed! In terms of frequency of feeds, he is feeding every 4-5 hours for about 30 mins at a time, but I have a feeling my milk comes out pretty fast. Last night, he fed for about 2 hours on and off, so maybe that's a new pattern emerging. When I express I usually manage about 60ml per boob in about 15 mins. Mind you, he's 10 days old now and hasn't gained any weight yet (had lost a little more at his weigh today).

Dilly Harry screams when he is naked, but I've found singing "Old MacDonald had a farm" with very silly farm noises usually helps!! I also sing a song I used to sing to him in utero which calms him a bit. Bless him, he also has the habit of peeing everywhere with a lovely fountain whenever I am changing him.

Gotta go, he wants more boob!

hello all! still here, still sleep deprived, still mainly feeding my greedy little boy...

hermya sorry you've got mastitis, hope the antibiotics are taking effect. thanks for that link about feeding lying down, I didn't realise there were other possible 'lying down' positions. I was doing side lying and it worked but was hard to manouvre baby into position. I think my boy is too heavy for the other positions to be comfortable, but its useful for telling other people about.

Oliver has gone from hating being naked to really quite liking it (as long as the room is warm enough) and he loves having a bath, so we have been doing that every day, he is all relaxed and alert when we bath him, and just looks so happy.

anyone else really hungry the whole time? I constantly crave sweet stuff, trying to eat fruit to satisfy the cravings, but mainly only cake will do . despite that, I seem to be back to almost thinner than I was before I got pregnant I think its because baby was so big that my bump got quite enormous towards the end, which kept any temptation to overindulge in pregnancy in check. that and breastfeeding really does seem to be making the weight drop off (although I suspect thats as much because with a baby stapled to my breast most of the day I can't do my normal 'grazing' thing!)

hope alls well with everyone, can't be many babies left to arrive now...?

dilly lol dd1 is already v fed up of the story about her pooing on her dad in the bath!

bug the boy was 14 days overdue in the end.

dilly our little guy hates nappy change and hates being starkers! I try and be as quick as poss when changing him.

I agree that it's hard not to nod off when feeding in the early hours so I choose sitting on edge of bed to keep me awake. Now my milk has come in he is feeding and sleeping better.

Anyone else's LO have a wet nappy and then when you change them into a clean one that is when they do a huge POO! So two nappies used!

I have had my cs stitches out. However it looks like the skin has seperated! Bugger! Will keep an eye on it and if worsens will mention to MW.

Baby has hearing test this week. I do wonder if he can hear cos nothing bothers him eg dog barking / sudden noises etc or it could be that we just has a chilled child?!

muggle your smug sil is a twit. He's a tiny baby who needs you. Re the moses basket, let him doze on you and out him down in the basket before he nods off completely. Stay with him shush and reassure - he needs to know you're there. 3 weeks way too early to worry - I'd hope to be a routine by about 10 weeks.

Muggle We've had this and I figured out that DS hated being put down in a cold basket. So last night I took a hot water bottle to bed with us and placed that in the basket whilst I was feeding him so it was all lovely and toasty when I popped him down in it. Oh my gosh it made such a difference, DS went down like a real star and stayed asleep. You could also try making a nest for him out of rolled up towels. My friends did this and it worked for them. Also Nymph is right, your DS is tiny and all they really want at this age is you.

DS was so much more settled last night, I'm still in a bit of pain from feeding but it's getting a lot better and the feeding lying down is working such a treat I feel like a new woman .

Me and DH have decided to try and work on getting DS to tell the difference between day and night. Well in reality I decided and told DH what he had to do, this is only after he constantly chatted to DS at 2am in the morning and got him all alert and excited. I don't blame him really, I have to stop myself from cooing at him.

I saw my friends two month old baby yesterday and the thought occured that it'll only be six weeks and my DS will be getting to that stage. I don't really want that to happen, I'm enjoying my snuggly newborn too much.

Hermya - I know what you mean about it all passing too quickly. Can't believe DS2 is 10 days already!

But then you see, when they are 5-6 weeks and you get those first smiles, you wouldn't swap that stage for anything.

Then at 8 weeks when they wake in the morning and see your face, the biggest smile imaginable lights up their features, and you wouldn't trade that for the world either.

Then they are 5 and 4 years old, and you've told them not to jump on the sofa for the millionth time that day, and you shout, and their contrite little faces as they chirp up 'sorry mummy' and you still wouldn't change it for the world.

Hi all, wanting to share the fab news that Toby is finally over his birthweight at 3 weeks old today - he's 3.3kg so 120 g more than at birth. so we've been discharged from mws and there we are! and all done by bfing, brilliant! am so chuffed (only anti-formula for allergy/health reasons in my family so it's a purely personal thing - not just a menty bf militant )

muggle Tobes won't go down in his basket either, I think the second stint in hospital really did for his nerves! like the hot water bottle idea, hermya did it once & it was helpful . Also figure there will be years when I am lomging to cuddle him and he won't want to so I'm making the most of it.

Yes to the sweet cravings! I'm living on cereal....

hermya for day/night reversal get lo out in the daylight esp around noon - tip from bf counsellor person.

nice post xav

silver hope your scar is ok

We did dark/light from getting home & think that's why dd3 settles better than in hosp as their lights didn't go off. I do everything at night except( poo & sick) in the dark

Been to baby massage this pm. Dd3 not convinced but did lay awake for most of it then fed for the rest. Friends dd (8w) there for first time too really enjoyed herself , grinned through most of it.