June 2013 - thread 9 - not many babies left to arrive now :-)

[MrsBri]

New thread as we appear to be talking a fair bit!

Lets hope we've all given birth by the end of this one :-)

And congratulations happygolucky!! (Reading back!) hope all is well now

Forgets just wondering how you work the combi feeding? I breast feed on demand and the. Give three 60-90 ml bottles a day as was suggested to do this instead of top ups. So this morning she's been on my boob since 7.30... Just me er seems satisfied! The longest stint has been about 7 hours of pretty much non stop boob!

Congratulations learner! Glad that you had a positive experience!

Gina- we have one if those chairs too- they're great! Only problem is that this time it hasn't made it out of the attic as we have no room at all for it

stef I felt exactly the same when Elliott lost 13% of his birth weight cried for days thinking that they thought I had starved him :(
the good part is he won't remember any of this but he will know you're a great mummy xx hugs xx
hope you're both home soon

We've also been topping up with the odd bottle of formula. If I'm at the point when she's been on for hours (3hrs yest) and just doesn't seem satisfied (cries when taken off) we try her with a 90ml bottle of formula. Sometimes she ignores it and clearly just fancies some comfort. Other times she wolfs it down. I know they said you should never need to top up but it is difficult to ignore a crying hungry baby when you literally have no milk left.

Oh Steff, you poor thing. You sound like an amazing mum, and I hope little Ethan can go home soon.

Congrats to the ladies with new babies! And good luck to the others having theirs today :) it's my due date but no sign of any baby....

That's good to hear sunny! I feel the same when she's been going for hours, feels a relief for both of us and she never turns it down!

Thanks for the diamonds oli, would you mind if I took them to the magical pawn shop and traded them for sleep? Awful night, baby refused to settle and then I couldn't sleep so started birthday in tears at 6am telling DH he could look after her. She then let me have a couple hours sleep so feel a bit better now.

Yay to the new arrivals! 25th June is excellent birthday choice. Weather normally ok, exams normally done at school/uni. It's exactly six months to Christmas so you can always say its your half birthday on Christmas Day:-)

Thanks Steff and amigoingmad- let me know what the MW says, I had MW yest and everything was normal but the crazy movement hadn't started then! I think baby was looking for the exit...!

Good luck to bumblebee!

Happy Birthday Sarah- totally agree the 25th is a good birth date... Hope your day is lovely and DH has a secret pressie for you.

Congrats to happy and learner hope you & babies are doing well!!

Hoping you get better soon hawkmoth- I cannot imagine being that ill and this pregnant, it's bad enough without being poorly, keep taking those antibiotics and fingers crossed you get better before baby arrives

Haha sarah its my dp birthday today too and he says its the best date to have been born on for the exact same reasons as yours. Its also my due date today but no sign of baby :(

congrats to all with new babies. Very jealous and you all.sound like your doing great jobs.

Oh and forgot to ask... Is anyone on here just using formula? The breast feeding troubles sound terrible, I know all the benefits but in the feeding class she made it sound so easy and natural but it sounds like in practice that is not the case

Massagegirl I'm similar to Sunny - my breastfeeding advisor said give him the first breast, wind and change him, then the second - let him feed for as long as he likes and then put him down, immediately. If he is still hungry I try him with formula. Used to be he needed it every feed (and nearly 100ml a time, some of which was thrown back up). Now it's 40-60ml a feed if at all, sometimes boob is enough which I'm taking to mean my supply is improving.

Word to the wise - I used nipple shields for a few days to allow healing (no room for confusion as he is already a combifeeder and I try to give him his bottle skin-to-skin). Advisor also recommended a dummy which I was surprised by - but he attacks the teat when soothing not feeding - this way he takes all the sore stuff out on the dummy and I can bin the shields... Rule she gave me though was not to keep giving him the dummy. Let him have it once and if he spits it out, then he is hungry. Seems a tad unorthodox to me but I have to admit DS has been much more settled.

Should have added that I express too (usually to make sure he has drained the breast, but also so that I can give him bm if he is sicky, he never ever throws it up...)

Never have had more than 80ml (from both breasts together) in one go and that was double what I usually get

Happy birthday Sarah and congratulations to the new baby's .

Due date tomorrow and planned sweep (I think).

I'm very bored, most days are spend waddling round the house and back to the sofa or bed. Getting very fed up! Sleeping is erratic to say the least. Seems very unfair that this is the case considering I will be begging for sleep once dc arrives (if dc ever arrives).

Due date Thursday, had MW apt just who tried to sweep but cervix too thick and posterior - boo hoo, thought having had some contractions it might be ready to go but no, she fooled us!!! Back a week today for a sweep if they can.

Well I've just woken from a long nap and that was only because I'd set my alarm to wake me. I'm really struggling to sleep at night now.

Mw appt was ok apart from both her and student having a good dig around to try to work out how engaged baby is. She is normally quite firm when doing this but today it was crazy!

Pumpkin she said to let them know if you're concerned about change of pattern in any way. So if baby is unusually busy and doesn't go back to normal then you can phone to tell them and see what they say.

Her plan is to come here to do sweep next week when I'll be 40+7 but if consultant decides to do it at 40+2 on thurs and that one doesn't work then she'll come to do the next one on say as they repeat every 48 hrs when they've started doing them here. I hope that's not necessary!

Hope you're having a good birthday Sarah and that you've managed a bit more sleep!

Thanks- baby is back to normal now, must have just been a crazy couple of hours!

Quick update - Emmeline Margaret Rose was born at 5:20pm, at home in the pool - delivered by DH!

Midwives arrived 5 mins later so he officially gets the next World's Best Dad mug I see. After starting contractions at 2am I was seen by a midwife at 7:30, was 3cm dilated. My community MW stopped by at 2pm, at 3:30 she checked me and I was still only 3, contractions 5 mins apart the whole day, then suddenly at 5:00 they just went beserk! I was even told I'd have to go for augmentation if nothing had sped up by 10pm...

DH called the CMW when he wasn't sure if DD was breathing OK while we were waiting for the other 2 to arrive, she actually couldn't believe she'd been delivered! So my body once again baffles the medical establishment - so glad we went with homebirth or she'd have been born in the car 10 mins down the road (hospital being a good 30 mins away)

Anyway Millie is fine, just snuggling and feeding

More details tomorrow I think

Congratulations bumblebee! Hope it wasn't too dramatic, but well done to your DH, what a star!

wow bumble - congrats and a big well done to your Dh!!
hope you all have a lovely first night together.

Wow congrats bumble that's amazing!

Wow bumble how lovely! Well done your DH!
Love the name too.

Bumble well done you! And your DH! Congratulations! Lovely name too!

Can any of you help me calm down a bit please? Any of you who are still waiting like me- are you panicking about birth at all? Because I'm driving myself mad at the moment ( and probably DH too although he's hiding it well and being awesome!). Or any of you who've already got your little ones, were you nervous? How are you/ did you get yourself calm about the whole thing?! I keep telling myself that it has to happen and is a means to an end and that my pregnancy has been totally different this time so it would make sense for birth to be too. And even if not then everything worked out well in the end last time anyway.

Aaargh!

Sorry to bring the mood down. Having a bit of a wobble!

I'll definitely be inspired by your achievement tho bumble!