Graduated elderberries - 30+ and looking forward to DC1! (Thread 6)

[HazleNutt]

Oh, looks like I wrote the last post! So new thread here where we will see more berry babies and hopefully loads more graduates as well.

Oh and Alex can't remember what our friend said about me sorry...

As a nod to sleep training too early Miles is lying in his cot awake, and I'm hoping he hiccups puts himself to sleep. First tried this on Tuesday and it worked... Tried again last night and it was a massive fail. Fingers crossed!

I gave birth at 40+1 but was augmented at 40 because waters broke at 39+6.

That said, that's based on my scan date which I alwaysmmaintained was a week early!

Of my rl pg friends - one gave birth at 36+5 and one had hers today at 39 weeks, both quick spontaneous births and both first timers!

As for people predicting gender, I really wish I'd made an effort to record the guesses. One friend who's never been wrong said girl from day one, but then started wavering later on. Best randomer was a premier league footballer who said boy, based on the way I was carrying. He was right :)

Janey my sense of failure was growing sentence by sentence until I spotted that 8 week thing and breathed a huge sigh of relief that maybe I'm not that shit after all.

On the back of it though I have just done a nappy change and feed (which obviously woke her up) and I have put her back in her moses basket swaddled but awake (albeit sleepy). 5 minutes in and she's still awake but showing no signs of distress so FX she nods off on her own soon so I can feel pleased with myself until she wakes me back up at 3.30.

So Miles slept for six hours on the trot last night I think this is all part of his six week growth spurt (grouchy and feeding loads at start of week, v sleepy now) but I'm over the bloody moon. It's amazing what one six hour stretch of sleep can do!!

Oh my god the sleep training thing looks so complicated.

So more worry over here - results of my cervical swab from the weekend have come back to show I am positive for Group B Strep. Apparently up to 25% of pg women are + for GBS, but because it can cause really serious problems in newborns if it transmits during birth (rare), they recommend IV antibiotics during labour. This probably means home birth and water birth are out. I'm quite down about it - too much anxiety for one week. DP is trying to look on the bright side and says it is better to know about it than not, but I am finding it hard to see the positives in having something potentially life-threatening to think about.

I am with your DP Quod, it is much better to know. And as much as a home water birth would be lovely, a healthy baby and Mum will be much lovlier. Birth is such a big deal that I know it's gutting when you can't have what you want but during the actual birth I guarantee you won't really care.

Hooray for a goodish nights sleep Janey! Our 6 week endurance challenge growth spurt hasn't started yet, but HV reminded me about it yesterday - something to look forward to.

I usually just let Elodie sleep whenever she likes, but I have decided today to do whatever it takes to get her to sleep as much as possible to stop her getting over tired and see what happens, so I suspect I have a day of lots of cuddling and rocking coming up. She was grumpy all day yesterday so I really hope it works and I get a happy baby back.

quod I'm really sorry you have more worry BUT you just reminded me that an old friend talked about this on FB after the birth of her baby (I'd never heard of it) and it is so much better to know beforehand, she was saying they should compulsory test but they don't in the UK do they? Did they run extra tests on you after your hospital visit?

Good luck with the sleep training cavort

janey I've only had six hours as DH's friends arrived to stay last night and I stayed up with them all until half one, then the bloody builders arrived at half seven - I'm sooo tired though, am really glad you're refreshed but it did make me laugh our different reactions to a 6 hour night of sleep! Bet I'll be grateful instead of grumpy when we have a baby

I have added a photo of our 6 week 10lb 2oz monster cherub. They change so much in these early weeks, she looks like a different baby now. She looks much better now she's a bit fatter, she was all skin and bone when she was born. I haven't managed to capture that elusive smiling photo yet though.

'Operation sleep' is going quite well so far. She slept 9pm-6am last night (with 2 x 15 minute feeding pit stops). I don't want to speak too soon but she's usually awake 6am until 10ish every morning but today it took half an hour of rocking but I've had her back asleep since 7.15 and she's still happily snoozing in her chair.

Oh quod, can completely understand you feeling worried and stressed. In reality though, very few women end up with the birth they would choose - I'm sure lots of berries would vouch for that. In fact i think that I'm the only one - and only because I requested and elcs, and even that wasn't straightforward as he was transverse breech and then had all those serious breathing difficulties after. So maybe you wouldn't have got the lovely water birth you wanted anyway, and at least this way you can be treated to prevent the small chance of an infection passing to your baby.

Cavort - your night feeds take 15 mins?! Grrrr I'm jealous. Miles only feeds for 15 mins but then needs winding for about half an hour (if I don't do that, I've found out the hard way it's a nightmare)

Hazle how's feeding going today?

cavort she is beautiful! Well done to all the mummys with sleepy babies.

quod I would say that you are lucky to discover now and have options for avoiding complications rather than both you and bubs suffering later. I think birth is one thing you really can't plan, it will be as it needs to be, as Janey said very few people get the birth they wanted. Try not to focus on what you can't have, maybe visit the unit they are recommending and think about how you can make their facilities work for you??

Janey it varies but she doesn't feed for very long since getting the tongue tie snipped, and she generally does a big burp as soon as I sit her up after the feed. Except at around 7-9pm when she struggles to get her wind up for some reason so I give her some Gripe Water before evening feeding which seems to work a treat. I tried Infacol first but it wasn't anywhere near as good... with the Gripe Water she often does massive burps while she's actually feeding very lady like.

She just woke up, fed for 10 minutes and went straight back to sleep.

The house next door has recently sold and our new neighbours are moving in today. I have just caught a glimpse and they are a young couple with an obvious baby bump going on. It looks like Elodie might have a little playmate moving in.

Thanks people - it's not really the non-ideal birth that's bothering me, I can suck that up for the best interests of the baby. It's more just having something on my plate to worry about that's got me down. It is rare but GBS can also cause stillbirth, preterm labour and miscarriage and after my scare last week all those things are feeling a bit too present in my imagination!

What a beauty cavort! And interestingly Vic has been struggling with I think wind around the same time as well, we got some herbal medicine for him, seems to help. very lucky to have a playmate - we just discovered that a couple across the street has a 2-month old girl.

janey feeding went fine, he was quite happy to go back to boobs again. Very relieved.

Hope that helps his digestion as well, as he has not pooped since we started with formula. Apparently that's normal (he usually only goes every other day when BF) and especially at growth spurt time, as they absorb everything. But you've got to love the Dr Google advice about baby constipation. That no need to worry if baby does not go for several days, as long as the poop is not hard and dry, he's not constipated and no need to do anything. Well great, except that if he does not go, how the hell am I supposed to know if the poop is hard or not?

Humm hazel yeah a tricky one!

quod ahh yeah I understand, fx you will get monitored closely so they will check everything is ok and put your mind at rest.

This little minx is getting far too strong, I am getting some proper kicks and left hooks! Had a midwife appointment this morning (all is good) and asked if she can tell how he is lying but she said it would be uncomfortable for him and me and could hurt his little head, obviously didn't find out. But I'd love to know how he can jab me really low on the left and right up high on the right at the same time?? Must be doing star jumps or something The high right hand side ones are far from comfortable, make my jump every time.

I feel your pain hazle. I also ended up on dr google about green poo and found this kind of shitty advice!
I have gripe water at home and will def use it once Lara is one month old. She doe have loads of wind and colic, and its heartbreaking to see her in pain when trying to do a poo.
On other news I have her a proper bath today and also managed to cut her nails. Feeling very proud of myself!

Well the sleep experiment all went to shit this afternoon when I decided to have a stroll into town with the pram. The pram is usually guaranteed to send her to sleep or keep her asleep, but despite being fed less than 30 minutes earlier, as soon as we got into town she woke up hungry so I fed her again and then she just would not go back to sleep. She was yawning constantly and getting increasingly hysterical (the thick woman in Boots didn't realise I was joking when I asked if they sold ear plugs and gave me a look which indicated she was about to phone Social Services), so I eventually had to get her out of the pram in the tiger in the tree hold with one arm (guaranteed to shut her up instantly every time) and push the pram with the other until she went to sleep. She also threw up on the floor in Next, which I just left because I had my hands full. So I am back to feeling like I am being controlled by a 6 week old.

Oh cav I feel your pain. If it makes you feel any better, I am being controlled by a 3 week old while being nagged by my mum

I read half of that article you posted yesterday and decided its too complicated! But I did try to make her sleep more today - then had to wake her up for a feed and she would not settle anymore! Not even on my chest which never happens.
It's all so complex!!!! No wonder so many people write books about it huh?

Have any of you gone through the 6 week growth spurt yet and did it affect baby's sleeping? Elodie's sleeping has become ridiculous since yesterday afternoon and she just wants to feed all the time. My nipples are sore again and she's only just gone to sleep having been up since 3am. DH and I are going out tonight for an anniversary meal, but my Dad and Step-Mum are going to have a total 'mare babysitting for a few hours if she's like this!

Yes!! Painful boobs, not stop eating, really really grouchy for a few days... Followed by one blissful day and night of loads of sleep. He's grouchy again today though, and was up half the night - not sure if it's still the six week growth spurt or because the poor lad has caught my cold...

The growth spurt seems to have left me with very leaky boobs though - he seems to have successfully imposed my supply. Could be embarrassing on the hen do later....

Ooh it's DTD day your anniversary. Hope you manage to get out tonight and have a fab day!

Non stop I mean...

Hope you manage to make the most of your night off and celebrating! and hope plan DTD goes well And enjoy your hen do janey

6 week growth spurt and all the rest of it sounds tricky. It's good though hearing about these things as I'm feeling more prepared for the realities of having a newborn.

I'm freaking out about this 6 week growth spur already . How many days does it last? Is it a whole week???? Would it help if I express like mad the week before so as dh can do some of the feeds?
Also what about teething? When does that start????

I'm glad (well, not glad but you know what I mean) it's not just us going through this shit Janey.

Lol Google seems to think it lasts anywhere from 1 day to a week, and I'm not sure expressing will help as experts seem to think the purpose of growth spurts is to increase milk supply as babies get bigger. Elodie usually happily takes a bottle and settles to sleep with DH, but she just wants boob at the moment which does not bode well for our babysitters later.

I don't think today will be DTD day after all. Sorry if TMI, but postpartum bleeding has been so light and brown for the last few weeks I just needed a liner, but yesterday afternoon it got heavier and turned red and I even wondered if it was AF? I will be hugely pissed off if it is as no AF is supposed to be one of the bonuses of BFing. It stopped last night but has started again today so I think DTD is out. Poor DH, he has bought me a lovely anniversary gift, booked a nice restaurant and stocked up on condoms. I'm sure he'll be fine about it but we were both looking forward to some intimacy I am sure he will still get a decent thank you for the gift, it will just be me who misses out.

And to add insult to injury we have been shopping today for a replacement for his beloved car which I am making him sell to get a boring but sensible family car.

See everyone seems to get sensible family cars, this doesn't bode well for us managing with our nice but ridiculously impractical car!

I didn't know BF was meant to stop AF. I don't get many AFs anyway because of PCOS but I was hoping having a baby might someone "cure" my PCOS and give me regular cycles, I won't expect them straight away then.