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Original poster

October 2013: Newborn snuggles and waddles to the finish line

999 replies

FeministInTraining · 15/10/2013 21:45

Stats sheet here

New arrivals here

Key:
SC - still cooking (pre EDD)
SFW - still f*ing waiting (post EDD)
OWT - on way to theatre (CS)
IP - induction in progress
SWIL - somewhere in labour
LIT - lost in transition

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
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Sanjifair · 26/10/2013 05:16

Hello, me again, still here, still not in labour, still no chance of induction. It's been 4 nights in hospital waiting now and I'm 40+13. I've been told the only chance of getting to the delivery unit at the moment is to be in labour. They have transferred 3 people there tonight in labour. I asked again about transferring to Harlow, they phoned Harlow on my behalf but Harlow are also full and have 2 ladies waiting in the queue for induction, so they don't recommend going. They said didn't recommend going home but didn't blame me if I did. They recommended I stay here though to keep my position in the queue.

I will try and find out about PALS and complain but I suspect there is nothing they can do.

I'm still tearful, fucked off and on my own. Told DP not to visit last night as he would hopefully be coming in the night. Hah! Will get him here as soon as I can today, I can't cope with this on my own anymore.

Mnippy · 26/10/2013 05:26

Lots of handholding Sanj, this is a ridiculous situation.

I woke just now to find I had completely slept through the 2/3am feed. I vaguely remember baby crying and looking at the clock around then with the intention of getting up, but must have gone back to sleep instead of getting up. 7 hrs since the last feed. I feel so so so bad. (Not really just because we're supposed to be fattening him up, but also because he was clearly crying in the bedside cot but I wasn't responding..,)

Mnippy · 26/10/2013 05:27

P.s. Flyer, mine also has to have his thrashing paws held down by whoever is around. Otherwise he eats them or I can't see pas them to get a good latch.

dontworryjustpanic · 26/10/2013 05:30

Sanji I really wish I could say something to help you but I think others have already suggested the things I can think of. Thinking of you though & hoping you are very soon on the delivery suite preparing to meet your baby.

roofio87 · 26/10/2013 06:29

sanj will they just not induce you because they don't want to have to send you to the delivery suite? or do they wait till you can go there to induce? hopefully they'll soon realise they can't leave you any longer x

legallyblond · 26/10/2013 06:33

Mnippy, if the crying had escalated to those v hungry cries you WOULD havected

legallyblond · 26/10/2013 06:34

Sorry - *have responded. He must have self settled!

Sephy · 26/10/2013 07:07

Hey all.

Really sorry to hear you're still there Sanj, what a nightmare. Hope your DP gets there soon and can cheer you up a little.

I've been away from the thread for the last week (and not properly caught up) as our little DD was born last Thursday by c section as she was breech. I can't believe a whole week has passed - but things feel very different now than they did when she was born.

I really wish I'd come back and read the thread sooner as I can identify with so much of what others are saying - difficulties latching (in the end advised by the nct breastfeeding coach to bottle feed her expressed milk for 12 hours to give her some energy to suck), nightmares with cluster feeding, nipple shields...

I'll try and post a bit more regularly for a bit, but if I don't manage it, just wanted to thank you or sharing your experiences ad let you know that there may well be many more struggling than post and that they sympathise and appreciate your posts.

neenienana · 26/10/2013 07:39

Hi all, no room on delivery suite for me either, ended up having baby on antenatal ward bathroom floor, was very quick and traumatic as we were on our own for a lot of it, thankgod for the lovely mw who came in and spotted my purple crack! Over the moon now as she is gorgeous. Will have to have words though as the worst part was hearing the visitors of the girl next bed giggle every time I had a contraction as they came thick and fast. I wanted to kill them:
Sanj, it is so so wrong what they are doing. Our experience shows just hoe fragile the maternity services are. Massive hugs and handholding xx

Shirehobbit · 26/10/2013 08:16

Massive hugs Sanji and just wow, Neen - the bathroom floor?! Shock
And I thought labouring in a triage corridor was bad. At least I made it to the delivery suite eventually.

Readyasilleverbe · 26/10/2013 08:21

Neen congratulations and well done for coping with a crazy situation. You poor thing. Hopefully you're home now, enjoying baby and away from the madness of the over crowded hospital.
Sanjifar your situation is just extraordinary. In a very bad way. Sending you lots of hugs and hoping that maybe might decide to crack on and help you jump the queue. You must be knackered.
Another night of cramps but no real contractions. My baby is sweep resistant. Been having show for over 12 hours now. Is this normal from what others have had? Going back to dau for another bp series in a bit. Really hope they're not as full as your place sanji because if bp gone up they won't let me home!
Hope everyone got at least a little sleep. X

OrangeBlossom2 · 26/10/2013 08:21

I am shocked neenie and sanji. Congrats neenie and sephy. Thanks
Sanji I really hope you just go into labour naturally now and then wail and scream your way to the private rooms/front of the queue that seem to be available for others.

Clapham I dreamt I came to visit you but you had gone to have your baby, hopefully it is happening in real life for you today.

We had a horrible night here. Thomas has wind I think, he is making a horrible squeal and arching his back, usually he doesn't really cry much except when changing his nappy. He wouldn't go down in his Moses basket so we were back to him sleeping on our chests again. He refused the cup feeds and wouldn't even take a syringe which is our fallback easy way of getting something into him so we just stuck to breast feeding last night and missed out one feed altogether. Hopefully that was the right thing to do and he isn't just starving but he didn't want it at all. He did get a few decent breast feeds and actually for longer than usual. I was a bit sad to pour away 150ml expressed milk we didn't use this morning. We are cycling his legs, rubbing his tummy and burping him but not sure what else to do. Still bad this morning. Sad

Readyasilleverbe · 26/10/2013 08:26

Congrats Sephy ! Great news. X

Sanjifair · 26/10/2013 08:55

Congratulations Sephy and Neenie! Good god, Neenie the bathroom floor on the antenatal ward! The midwife said they deliver babies on this ward too sometimes, but the least they could have done is given you a private room. I hope whoever was giggling was doing it out of nerves, otherwise she was a right bitch. I would have wanted to kill her.

Sanjifair · 26/10/2013 08:57

Oh I re-read and saw you said it was the girls visitors. What awful awful people.

OrangeBlossom2 · 26/10/2013 08:58

Hi shire, how are you doing?

Thomas seems to have finally calmed down after about 12 hours. I hope this isn't the start of a new phase.

Got my best friend coming to visit this morning, I don't mind her seeing disastrous feeding but not ready for any other friends yet.

Bronzemoth · 26/10/2013 09:03

neen congratulations. Glad you are both okay and that you are able to focus on the most important thing - that you have an amazing little baby now.

. What horrible people in the next door cubicle though.

Flyer747 · 26/10/2013 09:04

Orange are you struggling with the feeding also? I thought you'd cracked it. Why don't you put the expressed milk into the fridge? I believe you can store it for 4 days. Is Thomas struggling to latch on?

Sephy and neena congrats on the arrivals. That's truly appalling having a baby on the bathroom floor of the ante natal ward .

Sanji what are they going to do? You are 42 weeks pg? Surely they cannot leave you any longer?! Hugs Thanks

OrangeBlossom2 · 26/10/2013 09:14

Flyer we are getting there, there have been more good feeds recently and he isn't falling asleep as soon as he latches anymore which is great but still sometimes it just doesn't work and we both end up frustrated and in tears after repeatedly trying and failing to latch. He has a small mouth and my nipples are quite flat which doesn't help. Whenever we have a few good ones I feel great (did I post that we had cracked it? Haha must have been a confident moment!) then we have a bad few and I think it is all going wrong again.

I have some milk in the fridge but we took a pot out to warm up for the first night feed and also all the milk I expressed last night but he didn't want just went to waste as I left it in the pump bottle on my bedside table all night.

Flyer747 · 26/10/2013 09:19

Same here orange Thanks she falls asleep on me also. And like you I end up in tears and frustrated. She also doesn't ever open her mouth wide enough. Sounds like we have a similar problem.

I'm taking her to a weigh in on Monday if she's lost weight or not gained any then I will at that point def reevaluate where I go from there.

I dread feeding times.

OrangeBlossom2 · 26/10/2013 09:27

We have a weigh in tomorrow flyer where we will also decide our plan from here. I definitely want to stick with breast milk but don't know which way we will get it in to him long term. Good luck on Monday.

I had a good old sob yesterday that breastfeeding is meant to be a great bonding experience but I have to force myself to do it and don't enjoy it at all.

xuntitledx · 26/10/2013 09:31

orange - can you try infacol for wind?

It's worked for us!

Shirehobbit · 26/10/2013 09:39

Hi Orangeand Flyer Smile

We're still muddling through by combination feeding. Al only hit birth weight on Thursday (17days old) so we were finally discharged from midwife care (I did a happy dance Wink ) but despite every effort my boobs will only produce a trickle.
I'm happy to keep bf that paltry amount (which can take up to 2hrs+) but clearly that's not sustainable in the long term. But bf brings a lot of comfort to him, it causes me no pain (except back/shoulder ache towards the end of the day) and I do enjoy the closeness, 75% of the time - I still get frustrated that I can't produce enough for him. It makes me sad Sad
The health visitor came on Tuesday and she was absolutely lovely (and loads less militant than the bf mafia/midwives!) so I feel more relaxed and confident to do whatever is best for us.
The important thing is that he is gaining weight and growing (it's amazing - his feet are reaching the bottom of babygros that were too big a week ago!) and he's becoming more alert every day - watching us in complete befuddlement Grin I can't wait for him to become more reactive/interactive. Then all this feeding angst will be less important, I'm sure...

OrangeBlossom2 · 26/10/2013 09:44

Congratulations on reaching the birthweight shire and Al. A very hard won achievement.

Health visitor text to say she is coming on Thursday but we haven't been discharged from midwife care yet so not sure why she is coming yet.

Untitled, I wasn't sure if you could have infacol from newborn? In think MiL gave us some, I will look in a bit or send DH to buy some. He is ok now but last night was horrible. He was so sad!

Slippersandacuppa · 26/10/2013 09:57

Morning, hope you don't mind me interrupting your thread! I just love reading about all these little babies arriving :) Anyway, something you said, Orange caught my eye. Have you looked into silent reflux? DS2 had a severe form of it but it went undiagnosed for four (long, nightmarish) months. The second he went on meds, he was a different baby. One of the symptoms is arching of the back and he also made such an awful noise. I couldn't not post as it's a torture I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. The earlier it's diagnosed and treated, the better. The golden rule is to never lay your baby flat - even changing mats need to be on an incline. Just something to think about if the infacol doesn't work. Good luck.