December 2011: Scratching, squeezing, hatching and latching...

[LittleMissHumbuggery]

...and those of us left are doing a fair bit of bitching:o

I wonder if we could get a [pompoms] going on? Do we have the energy for a campaign?

Right, come on! We're a third of the way through the month and Nickelbabe needs new recruits for her advent thread. Get squeezing:o

Arg for the endless feeding oi, hope that the workmen can be bribed pacified with tea and biscuits to do their work quietly and quickly and then get out of your hair!

Well little fellas 3am night time feed continued to 6.45 so I ended up giving him another bottle and then he slept through until 9.30 which was bliss. Today am sat in bed doing skin to skin and giving him both breasts for as long as can stand, going to research a tablet for the extended feeds to keep me entertained, have decided the iPad is too big for 1 handed fiddling so if anyone has any recommendations they will be gratefully received. Looking at a samsung galaxy tab. As I have refused to have a tv in our bedroom am currently having to read my breast pump manual for entertainment

Hi all- v quick dive in. One handed post as per....

Hope all those having bf issues will find a way through, and remember whatever you choose- or end up having to do- you are always a good mother as you love your LO. Haddocks to guilt, although it's v hard.

Did our 300 mile journey up N with ONE! stop, but have been and will be for next week receiving 000s of visitors, so will be quiet on the chinchilla front for a while.

Welcome to the new arrivals and hope our last 2/3 land soon.

just brought some lovely nursing bras in the figleaves sale - looking forward to them arriving as feels like my boobs are growing everyday! Will they continue to grow all the time I'm breast feeding?

Sky was a little grizzly between 4 & 6am this morning but slept very well other than that.

Thank you for your birthday wishes! I hope the 3 of us do have our babies in 2011 but not looking hopeful this end! Might need to consider changing my name

Msb sorry to her about your grandad and hope he is okay!

Darcies they'll calm down when your supply decides where it's at. Then you go back to not knowing what they're up to when you stop >_

Hi everyone

Congrats Fusam

I have my pompoms out ready for all still waiting

MsB sorry to hear about your grandad

Darcie i'm with you on the 4-6am grizzle. I hate it that Hope has trapped wind and i can't help with the pain. I have given infocol and i make sure i wind her after every feed and put her in the bouncy chair but it seems that i can't get the last bit out and she cries . So i'm up everyday giving tummy rubs, reflexology on her feet and doing baby gym (moving her legs) at 4am, she also likes to be held upright on my chest and rocked back and forth.

We went out to Asda today as we needed food but Aaron is ill and has another cold and cough. I got four nice dresses for Hope and most of the food we wanted but half way round Aaron was sick on the floor and i went bright red and said sorry to all the people around us and a very nice women patted me on the shoulder, give me a toilet roll for Air and told me to stop saying sorry and that my son was ill - it really helped and i could have hugged her right then . I cleaned it up and the man that worked there give Air a drink of water and we cut the trip short to get him home. We give him calpol and he has been asleep since we got back. I can so see that both children will be ill next week when DH goes back to work

I'm still leaking milk, getting covered in sick from Hope's spit back, covered in snot from my son and finding it hard to get time for a shower/wash my hair. I feel like i'm feeding Hope, cleaning up bodly fluid from Air and doing washing and thats it finding it hard today.

My daughter once spectacularly vomited in a projectile stylee right in front of the entertainment desk in tesco. It was epic. They were cool about it though. Same as the people in boots when she had a projectile moment in there right near the pharmacy counter. Shop staff are used to it, trust me, I used to be a shop type:o

We had a great "clearup in Aisle Two" moment once when my delightful DD1 decided to ram her Supermarket bribery towards her tonsils by accident. I used to give them a carrot to bang on the trolley as they went round (tidier than chocolate and the dDs both loved gnawing on them when they got teeth, like some mental food-deprived rabbit). Except DD1 managed to inhale a large chunk one day and totally hosed... I can assure you the supermarket staff are well used to the occasional kiddy puke, it's a know hazard of the job.

My eldest is eight and will usually take a carrot over a chocolate still:o

ladies who are expressing I'm interested as to how much you can get out. When we were readmitted to hospital Icould only produce a pathetic 2ml in 20 mins (5 mins on each boob then repeated) its never gotten more than that to be honest hence the formula top ups this week. Im still having to syringe feed him what I can produce and it just doesn't seem to be increasing at all anyone know if there are stats on averages?

Anyway...

Midwife appointment was entirely unnecessary. They only offer a sweep at 40+6 and seeing as that for me is over a weekend (thurs-sun is a weekend here folks, who knew?!) they can't do one. So I'm shafted until my consultant appointment at 40+11 where I'll get a sweep which will be pointless as I'll be in the day after for induction To add insult to injury she also sent me to the ADU for yet another presentation scan as she couldn't tell the octopus' arse from it's head. I could, but nooo, I had to drag my waddly arse across town and wait to be scanned. Midwife in ADU looked at me and said it was a bum not a head, then confirmed it within thirty seconds with the wand. Gah!

Sorry. It has been a long day and the tiredness has concentrated the festery nature of this grump.

In lighter news, I bought a swaddle wrap for £3.50 today. I only swaddle to pin arms during feeds, and usually use a muslin, but it's cute and was cheap:)

Right. I'm off to drink juice and decide whether I am going to be good and have toast for dinner (had curry for lunch, canteen being only plus of hospital journey - curry and rice with a for £3!) or if I'm going to indulge my craving for salty chips and a manky burger>_

No idea figgy as I have never ever been able to express more than half an ounce. I appear to have union member boobs that work to rule >_

congrats again on new arrivals and good luck to the last few.

had a really quiet couple of days here as ds at the grandparents overnight. v strange without him and got a fair bit done(inbetween watching crap tv!)

re expressing i haven't even tried this time round but last time i hardly managed anything despite hours of trying, yet have a good supply of milk when bf ing. not sure why

freya also has really bad trapped wind - have started infacol but too early to tell if working. she is such a good girl though - lots of noisy grunts and straining, bless her, but not much crying about it. tummy massage helps a bit.

expressing ability seems to be really variable: I used to get 4-5 oz out by doing each boob once, but my friend who totally BF her little one til
a year tried about 5 diff pumps, manual, electric etc, even borrowed an NCT one, and just couldn't get more than a few ml off. So it's great if you can (and worth trying more than one pump), but sometimes it just doesnt work very well. If you want expressing advice most of the NCT breast counsellors also give pumping advice (nct bf line is 0300 330 0771)

I think the only public vomiting moment we have had is when DD1 caught the norovirus. We were sat around my Gran's kitchen table on Christmas morning. She said she didn't feel well, then vomited all over the table. That was a fun Christmas!

My Grandad really isn't well and isn't allowed to drive any more. My Mum goes back to work on Tuesday so I start back to looking after them then. Will probably be doing a half hour visit to check they are ok every day, my Mum is doing their shopping at the weekends, I'll be doing the hospital appointments as he doesn't remember things. Which will be interesting with all the DDs!

fiigy when I was expressing at the start I was managing to get 20-40ml after a feed and once managed to get 60ml before a feed, using a manual pump. I agree with aethel to try different pumps as with DD1 I tried an electric one and managed to get a couple of drips only but with manual I tend to get at least 20ml.

I have to say so far, bar the initial feeding problems and weight loss (and seeing how lucky I was not to get her taken back to hospital as happened to others who also lost 13%), Hawwa is a dream baby (although seems to always have a cold with extreme blocked nose) and hardly ever cries etc,doesn't often cluster feed, sleeps whenever we are in public (shopping, church, mosque etc)which is just the complete opposite of DD1 who would cluster feed then cry for hours and hours till 4am just about every night until she was 4 months old.

How is everyones lochia doing? Mine stopped for 6 days and now I am lightly bleeding again, I am confused...

bee freya has had a cold since birth too. my lochia stopped too but still occasionally makes an unexpected reappearance, with no rhyme or reason.

Midwife came again today and breast feeding counsellor. Baby has put on some weight finally (phew!) but I need to continue with the expressing top ups and formula top ups. The bf counsellor gave me some ideas to try. Her latch seems to be fine. But it appears that my let down is super slow and takes ages so that may be why she is so frustrated and falls asleep or won't feed, as it just takes too long. So have started expressing for a few minutes before giving her the breast and the past two feeds have been slightly better. She is staying on longer at least, but I am not sure if she is actually swallowing much. But at least it's a start. I also managed to express 35ml after each feed the past 2 feeds, instead of 20ml as previously, so at least she is getting more ebm each feed and a bit less formula. The more breast milk I can give her, the better. So I am going to persevere and see how we get on. It means breast feeding, then expressing while my husband gives the emb/formula from a bottle at each feed, which means we both have to be up and it is quite relentless, but I really want to succeed so much, so the more I can put her to the breast/express, the better. Fingers crossed things improve. Will see the bf counsellor next week, she is also going to see if I can possibly borrow an electric pump. Don't want to shell out a hundred quid in case a) it doesn't work for me and b) the bf doesn't succeed. So a loan would be ideal.

Hope everyone is getting on okay! Sorry to hear about the vomiting Air, what a nightmare. I guess we all have that to look forward to. Hope those babies make an appearance in 2011 to those still waiting!

Ok I have to get back to bed. I seem to do little apart from feed, express, sterilise bottles then try and sleep, then repeat cycle trying to fit in 3 healthy meals and a walk as well each day. It's relentless! But fingers crossed things will soon improve on the bf front.

Giving my old name a whirl as I have evicted the festives from everywhere else:o

I have just had the manky burger, and feel better for it.

Figgy I have a samsung galaxy and love it

DH works in IT and hates the apple and ipod brands for various ethical reasons and he researched which alternatives were best

Sorry for disjointed email but feeding and typing with thumb on bberry

Jinglebum how old is Freya now I only ask as Danny is 8 days old today and my blood loss (which i assume is the lochia rather than stitches related) just seemed to stop this afternoon other than very light discharge.....for now anyway.

When was back in hospital they had a medela industrial pump which I used and have bought my own yesterday maybe I should have tried renting some like suggested. Danny is currently a formula baby with breast top ups he's been awake for hours now hoping that means good sleep tonight

Congrats Fusam!

Sending my best labour vibes to all those still waiting -Aethel you have my sympathies - the false labour pains are mental torture!

Oi hope you have better night tonight.

In terms of lochia - Luke is now just over 3 weeks and I'm still bleeding although it is light. It seems to be almost non-existent during the day, then I bleed a bit most evenings/night. Think it varies a lot from person to person though.

Stupid question here: for all those who had C sections - how long does it take for the stitches to dissolve and what does it look like when healed? People keep asking me if I'm healing well and I have no idea! I just keep checking that all is clean and there is no infection - have no real clue how I know if it's healing well!

jingle does freya seem to gag sometimes on phlegm? Hawwa does this and its a bit frightening. DH keeps telling me to squirt EBM up her nose not convinced by this.

mopsy I had to do the same, bar my DH wouldn't help unless I started to cry (which by the end of the week doing this every 3 hours I often did). What pump are you using at the moment? I find electric far too slow and I like being able to make my own rhythm with the manuals.

It's a philips avent manual. A friend gave it to me? How come your husband didn't help? I'd be getting next to no sleep without my husband's help, don't think I cd manage. You're amazing to keep going. Also it's a lovely bonding time for my husband and minimopsy. He feeds and changes her while I pump. Is nice for him to get to know her a bit doing that I think. Maybe you cd use that argumentbto get your husband more involved?