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 :-)

good luck steff!

had a day of sorting things today - got our appt for Wednesday to make Violet official going for both our surnames with mine first. dp and I are engaged and plan to marry but kinda like the idea she has both our surnames - I might actually do the same when we get married as dp is divorced So there has already been a Mrs him - I quite like to be individual!!

fingers crossed for some more arrivals!!

Good luck Stef.

Just had the midwife round. Lily is clearly getting enough to eat as she has only lost 5% birth weight and is producing plenty nappies. The midwife had a look at how she is latching on though and thinks that might be the reason we're having to feed for so long. I've not been getting enough boob in her mouth so she's not getting enough milk so is having to feed for longer. She also said to use our common sense re the dummy and the 'guidance' can bugger off. If baby needs a dummy we will know basically. Think we've got quite a good midwife really.

Good luck Steff.
More contractions here, every 4-6 mins, and surprise surprise they have now stopped. Very annoying! Got loads more back and hip ache so hoping they are good signs. Might get the tens out and see how I get on. DH is being very good but starting to annoy me by asking if I have had any more (contractions).
Has anyone's mw performed a sweep or a cervix check before 41 weeks? Got an appt tomorrow and tempted to ask her as I've now been having on off contractions for a week.

Ooh also her suggestion to improve chances of baby sleeping in Moses basket was to get a hot water bottle to warm it. It's possibly that by transferring baby from nice warm humans to cold basket is part of the proeblm. Of course you have to take the bottle out of the basket when you put baby in!

Good luck steff

I also had night sweats the night my milk came in, and your boobs suddenly change (well mine do). All that comfort sucking stimulates milk production - particularly night feeds - by releasing prolactin. Tis all scientific reasoning! Babies also have mini growth spurts and boost production around 10days, 6 weeks, 4months and six months. The four months nearly broke me last time as DH was away and DD1 fed non stop for four days. Kellymom.com has some great links. I used nipple shields last time for the first few weeks and they were great, sterilised them in a cold water steriliser.

I was discharged from MW today, my scar is healing well but my stomach is still very bruised and swollen. Baby welly has gone from 7lb 6oz last Sunday to 8lb 7oz today so has regained birth weight and then some, so different from failure to thrive label we had for DD1.

Oohh redwelly that explains last night & today's constant feeding then, today is day 10!

Good luck steff hope things are going well.

Littlemiss I had a sweep at 38+5, midwife very happy to do one at my regular appointment. If your baby isn't ready to come out, it won't work anyway so no harm done. I believe it works in 1 out of 7 cases.

Just got myself an ice lolly at the shop and sat in the park with baby in sling. Blissful!

Ooo, good luck Steff - hope you're on your way to holding your LO.

Littlemiss - I had a sweep last Thursday at 40+2. It was only very slightly uncomfortable, no pain at all. My cervix was soft although slightly posterior and was around 1cm. The sweep didn't work as I'm still pregnant

Got another this Thursday then induction date for Sunday 23rd. Hoping he makes an appearance before then, would love to go naturally.

Good luck, Steff! Hope this is it for you!
I have sweep booked for 40+2.

Great weight gain red!

And rreow- which sling are you using? We've got a baby hawk and a Moby wrap from ebay to try. Didn't use one with DS but thought it would be handy with 2 to look after!

Have been really good about sitting as upright as possible for months now with an eye on baby not ending up back to back but I've just noticed how swollen my calves and ankles are. So now I'm sat here with my feet up as I'm really not sure how its physically possible to put your feet up whilst also tilting your hips forward, all with a huge tummy!!!

Littlemiss I hope that things get moving for you!

Pink - you can def express and feed that to LO if you want to while you heal, I've done it a fair bit the last couple of weeks, usually in the evening when cluster feeding kicks in - I feed for a while, then DH takes M and I express, for DH to bottle feed it straight to him!

Steff - good luck, hope things are progressing nicely :)

Red - that's brilliant weight gain, wow. M is being weighed on Wednesday for the first time since we were discharged, will be interesting to see how heavy he is now after all the not-gaining-malarky!

Welcome melli too.

AmI - I've been using a Close baby carrier, and because M is so massive I've already moved onto the Ellaroo Mei Tai instead. I had a Moby to try that I borrowed from someone locally but never had the chance - the stretchy material doesn't work now.

M has grown out of his newborn clothes :( I need to pack them all up and get rid but I don't want to! I'll never have a baby this small again :(

Ok rue thanks :-) may do feeding in the day and bottles for the evening so dh can help so the next question is do you feed then express straight away from the other breast

AmI can you lie on your left side on the sofa - that should help with positioning but also get your legs elevated?

AmI I have a KariMe. It's taken about 4 uses to really get to grips with how to tie it and make it comfortable, but I'm good with it now and I love it. We had a BabyBjorn for DS1 which I really hated, it gave me back ache. The other day I used the KariMe for about 4-5 hours in total (mostly sitting at my desk & some cooking) and I wasn't uncomfortable. I'm also hoping to try a canvas wrap from a sling library as they're supposed to be even better for weight distribution, but they're rather pricey so want to try before buying.

Learner thanks I'll try that tomrw. My legs won't be above my hips but them being at least level with them should help a bit I reckon.

How are you all doing with the sleeping on the left side thing too? I'm trying to mostly but have to switch to the right a few times in the night as my shoulder aches otherwise. It's weird though that sometimes my bump aches when I turn into my right, as if the baby is telling me to turn back! I listen to the baby and think that this could be a sign of things to come!

I was going to try a sling library rreow but there's very little of that type thing around here. Looking forward to trying both of the ones I have out and hoping it gives me done hands free time for DS. Especially at bathtime when DH is working away.

I'm having a wobble tonight. Swinging between wanting things to happen right now as am fed up of bejng pregnant, and wanting to be pregnant forever so that I don't have to do birth. Aaargh!

We use a close until big enough for a small connecta, from 16months ish I use a custom wrap conversion, I wore DD1 until about seven months pg.

Can recommend sling libraries, often do good cake as well

I've bought a new close carrier so hope that will be good for a while. Must get it out of the box to try! Have used an ergo in the past for 4/5m onwards.

AmI, I'm more of a right sided sleeper generally - do try to start on left but always end up on right. Doesn't seem to bother baby though.

Thanks to whoever suggested the antenatal group book, am really enjoying reading it .

It's probably more down to having a full stomach still when going to bed than baby being bothered I imagine!

We have a seriously unhappy baby welly tonight, screaming and crying - mucous seems to be bothering her, and I think its too hot as well. Anyway DH is convinced she hates him as she always calms down with me. Poor dh.

Aww your poor DP, bless.

Baby probably just feels calmer when near Mummy.

Pink - depends! M normally has a long sleep in the morning from abt 9.30am so I try and express abt 10.30ish and store that, then express in the evening while DH gives him the morning lot.

With dd I used to express one side at 7am as she always woke up at 7.30 like clockwork, and she'd them feed on the other side. That worked brilliantly

Well that was successful after 4 feeds half an hour apart scabby and bleeding nipples last night I have just fed Theiya 4.25am wake up a bottle of expressed breast milk which she drank all of beautifully and now fast asleep in under 15 minutes no pain and no crying

Think I may express all of it and do it in bottles as that was so much easier and expressing is nowhere near as painful as she is.... Might start to enjoy feeding

sounds good pink. Maybe once you have a chance to recover and heal you could mix it up. I have to say, after doing alot of pumping with ds due to going having to work at 12 weeks, I got fed up of the faff of it, even with a double electric. bf-ing seemed so much easier- no washing up for one . I expect this time to do a bit of both, thankfully after 1 week it's hurting a lot less now, my nipples must have toughened up!

How is everyone with a toddler and a newborn getting on? I'm worried that the baby is not getting as good naps as she should as she seems to be sensitive to noise but I don't really want to leave her in another room. Trying to get a 2 year old boy to play quietly is not that easy, especial with metal trains and cars and wooden floors. On the plus side it does mean she is awake more to feed so hopefully will gain weight quickly. Oh and ds has developed a cold out of nowhere, so also having to try to stop him coughing all over her.

Aloha, any good house news over there? I hope it has sold.

And we need news from Steff and coffee now! We need more babies. :-)

No movement from Baby B overnight, sadly. I think he's having far too much fun within. We've just spent the last hour playing with him and tickling his feet! He typically got a bit excited and gave himself hiccups for a while. Come out, Baby B, we really want to meet you now :-)

We've also just tried the, ummm, more efficient method of home induction too. Nice treat for DH. This had better work!

Just wondering how long I have to leave it before eating to ensure it is ingested properly?! Nice. :-/

Have to say MrsBri that's put me right off my bran flakes:-)

Question- does anyone else feed and then settle back to listen to what can be an hour of grunting, choking noises? She sounds really distressed but I'm sure she isn't. We burp her but that doesn't help. She's such a gaspy feeder- loads of air ingested. Wonder if expressed milk would be better??