Graduated Elderberries - Thread 8

[Cavort]

The over 30's expecting/just given birth to their first little bundle of joy.

Thread 8 already!!

Janey my DH mucked in as well and would take over for any wakings past 5am even though he has to leave for work around 7.30, so no matter how bad my night had been I knew I had 5-7am uninterrupted, which was great knowing I had those 2 hours of definite, glorious, baby-free sleep to look forward to.

Not much point in our case, DH sleeps like a log and I'm a light sleeper, so by the time I manage to wake him up, I'm wide awake myself already.

Hazle if it's been a bad night I generally go in the spare room at 5am so DH is on his own to deal with any wakings and I sleep much better when I am away from her, and if she isn't protesting loud enough to wake DH up then she can just be left alone to settle.

I see snow is forecast for next week. The dog will still need walking so I look forward to the challenge of trying to handle a pram on snow and ice.

Coming from the land of snow, if you get stuck, the trick is to pull, not push

I feel your pain, Harvey didnt settle till 4.30, he would be napping on me or my OH or have fallen asleep when feeding, put him down an a few minutes later he was screaming. So annoying as I knew he was fed, changed etc, think he was overtired?

I was like you cav, sat by his bed rocking it slightly at each stir for 10 mins (which feels like forever at 2/3/4am) didnt work though. In the end I had him laying on his tummy on the bed burping him, I was sat on the floor like a loser, I dozed of with my head on the bed next to him and my OH woke me to say he was asleep. Then he finally went down and slept till 9am.

I fed him so much last night and felt lightheaded when I woke up/got up this morning, is it possible they are connected?

Yuck snow, so glad my OH will still be off.

Nobody has mentioned to me when I am able to drive etc after a section. Is it 2 weeks janey.

Mother with a newborn I think anything goes. You use any means possible to get them to sleep! Are you swaddling? It worked well for us in the early days.

Good advice Hazle. It's quite hilly here so I think I could still be in for some icy pram fun Also, what do you do with a 4x4 in the snow? Should it just drive well or do you have to put it in off road function? Our street is a nightmare in the snow so I am looking forward to having a vehicle that hopefully shouldn't get stranded!

Do you have winter tyres? They make a massive difference, even on 4x4. We always change, even though we don't get that much snow over here.

Not yet but DH has mentioned getting some. He had some for his BMW as it's the only way we could get it out of the street.

I tried the swaddle pod in the hospital and he screamed blue murder at having his arms pinned down. He likes his arms up by his head. He is a tricksy wee man. I'm tempted to try him sleeping at more of an angle, I think sometimes being flat after a marathon feed upsets him. Just guessing though, no real idea to be honest.

Mother I agree with cavort that in the early days it's almost impossible to put them down. We just gave up on the concept of day and night and slept when we could. Routines can come later and then be destroyed by the 4 month sleep regression

In terms of driving you need to speak to your insurance company. Some say six weeks, some say whenever your doctor says you're ok to drive. I think two weeks is likely to be too soon - you need to be capable of doing an emergency stop - but would imagine that had I asked I would have been given the ok after four weeks. As I live in London though it!: easy to live without a car, so I just waited for the ok at my six week check, rather than going in earlier for an appointment just to get the ok.

When Elodie was newborn I used to put the swaddle on once she was asleep otherwise she wouldn't have put up with it. If he doesn't like being flat after feeding and winding maybe you should look for signs of reflux?

But from 6 weeks or so onwards Miles loved his 'arms up' swaddle for ages - you can get them from Australia. Could be worth a try.

This kind of thing

Ohh interesting janey, shall have a look

Yeah we have good days and bad days, or should I say nights. Can't complain though as hes only a week old. We were threatening to give him to the gypsys last night though....not that he seemed to care!

what do I look out for re reflux? Hes not sick much, the odd sicky burp but thats it. Just heaps of wind, even when fed sitting up....could be the nipple shield, he nornally brings it up ok but struggles at times.

Why would nipple shields make any difference? That's a question out of interest as I have no idea what they are/do

Hey Mother, we raised the head end of H's mattress with a blanket and it made a huge difference - he would be very sicky but since doing that he hardly ever wakes himself up with sick or wind.

Janey don't beat yourself up about sleep. H went through a phase like that after his first jabs - we were at my mum's, routine shot to pieces, he was getting his first cold... he also wouldn't sleep in the daytime so my mum and I ended up driving round my childhood towns for hours and hours to get him to nap.

But a week later he was fine. I co slept with him a bit for a couple of days (DP was at home so I had a big bed to mmyself) - made a nest out of pillows and my arms so he couldn't fall/suffocate. Once the cold was past, and we were back to our normal routine plus a couple of quiet recup days he was back to normal again.

It'll pass. And I bet you £100 that he's not going into your bed at the age of 12 :)

Oh Mother meant to say drink more... I used to get really dizzy and lightheaded in the early days. Your blood volume is still high so if you're not drinking enough your blood pressure can get quite low. I get it now from time to time, usually when H has been high maintenance and I've not had a chance to eat and drink enough. Exhaustion makes it worse. Drinking more should help...

Btw your man sounds ace :)

Hi, I've had quite a bit of worry as I had a bleed last night, it was red, and I came to hospital but they can't work out why I was bleeding - didn't look like a show, and they don't think it's placental abruption because my placenta isn't low and my stomach is still soft. I've been kept in for 24 hours but they seem stumped about why I had the bleed, it was quite a lot and all at once. Has anyone else heard of anyone having a bleed this late on (am 38 weeks)? Am not sure whether to push them to do an ultrasound as well as the heart beat monitoring they've been doing - they didn't seem keen to do that and the scan department closes soon so if I'm going to put pressure on it would need to be now. Just brown blood today, no more red, which they say is good. Eek

Sorry if that was me, me, me, just a bit anxious!

Sorry to hear, hopefully nothing serious, but if they can't figure out what it was, I would push for an ultrasound.

Alex I said on your other thread, but def push for an ultrasound, can't understand why they wouldn't have done one already! Hope you are OK.

You're in safe hands Alex. You're full term so if there's the slightest whiff of anything wrong they'll get baby out, so if the HCP's are happy to let baby cook a bit longer you can rest assured. I know how difficult that is though.