January 2014 Thread 16 - More babies arrive or we make delicious lasagnes whilst we wait

[enormouse]

Here you go - New thread! (Procrastinating wildly)

No advice really nature just wanted to give you a hug x

Oh nature, hugs xx

nature. Just read your update and wanted to send hugs. try not to worry about not expressing much, there is only a teeny amount there to start and milk takes several days to fully come in. hopefully she'll be back with you by then and you'll be having lots of snuggles. its good she's weeing and they aren't too worried about kidneys tho must be very worrying not knowing what is actually happening xx

Oh nature that must be so hard for you. The NICU and HDU at my hospital had 24 hour access and my friends who had babies there would go up in the night to have a cuddle and express by their baby's bedside. Is that a possibility for you? Mason had transient tachypnea at birth and really improved once we had skin to skin time. Really hope that she continues to make good progress and can come off the oxygen and be with you.

Thinking of you nature and keeping fingers crossed she will be back on the main ward with you soon. We were told a newborns stomach is teeny, marble sized so you need to express far less than you think and every little bit helps xx

Sorry things are so hard for you, nature. I hope she can be with you soon

Cloth is going well thanks, blue. Meredith's bum is getting sore despite us using reusable wipes with just water and a drop of lavender oil. It seems to have got worse today. I'm hoping that the cloth nappies will help, and tomorrow I will try using cold camomile and honey tea with the wipes, as it's supposed to help. Also using Metanium, but any miracle remedies would be gratefully received!
No leaks or anything, though, despite a couple of serious poosplosions. I'm impressed with them.

Thinking of you nature and hope she is back with you soon. Also agree with asking if the ward has 24 hour visiting for parents, the one at our hospital does.

Thanks everyone. Yep we can pop down when we want which is good but don't think I would feel comfortable trying to express down there. I've got pictures of her so have been looking at those to help. Been in and out of there all day but it's difficult for us to hold her as she is all tubed up. Just had a much more successful expressing session so think I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Sorry you've had such a hard time sultanajo. This parenting lark takes it's toll but glad things sound like they are improving.

Good luck to all those still waiting.

Angel are you from near Cheshire oaks? It's just down the road from me.

Nature I'm in Manchester, so only about 40 mins away. Really really hope Olivia comes out of NICU soon and everything gets a bit easier xx

nature bless you and huge congratulations and hugs.

toby no don't worry about thread 15. Won't get a chance to read it.... Thats great about the cloth nappies! Well done you!

Thanks ladies for your kind words. No advice from doctors, just hv said they would check on me in a couple of weeks....

Ewan the sheep is not the magic sheep i hoped he would be, but will try him again tomorrow... Will see if I can get Henry to associate him with comfort and report back on progress....

Completely forgotten everything else, but contractiony vibes to all those waiting to pop!

Nature it must be so hard. Glad you got some time with her earlier! Hope you can both go home soon

The orange juice didn't work this afternoon and she has only just done a poo and it was quite dry and pebbly. Poor girl ended up getting some cow and gate formula as didn't know which one was best and she just sicked up loads of curdled formula that looked like cottage cheese! Ugh is this normal? I feel so bad for giving her formula now.

nature - huge hugs. My 13 month old DS was in SCBU for nearly a week when he was born. I never managed to establish breast feeding but did exclusively express for him for 22 weeks

It looks like I may end up down the same road with Eva too.

I got very litte to no support in the hospital with expressing to keep supply up. Hope it's not the same for you but it was only due to my wonderful DH practical as ever getting advice from the Internet that I managed to keep my supply going with hand expressing to start with. I was shell shocked, to be honest, and couldn't think straight.

This time it was a lot easier wth Eva as I started to hand express etc early doors just in case

If there is any help or advice I can give you, please just PM me. We weren't even sure how much colostrum etc we should be getting. What was normal. What amounts when I started expressing with the pump etc and none of the midwives seemed very clued up. I'm definitely not an expert but very happy to pass on any info I've collected along the way.

Am sure this is just a temporary hiccup and you will soon be happily breast feeding

Hope everyone else is well. Will try and pop on later and catch up

nature just wanted to send big hugs. Am sure things will improve and all the tubes will become a distant memory and there will be non stop squishy hugs shortly.

Hmm, think I am contracting, (pains in back and lower abdomen that feel different to the usual period cramps I have had) although the pains are quite irregular - from 5 minutes apart to 20 mins at the moment. Hopefully the sweep booked for today wont be needed now!

exciting Percy. that sounds really promising. I was ctx when I had last sweep so they may still sweep if you're happy with it. x

Hadnt thought of that, just thought I wouldn't go! Just started having my show...

Ooo percy things are looking good.

Well what a lovely night we have had here. Fed Aurelia at 10:30pm and dh settled her to sleep by about 11-11:30pm. She slept until 1:30am when she woke and feed, then she went straight to sleep until 3:30am. She fed again and then straight back to sleep until her feed at 6am! Hoping its the infacol that is helping her gas so she is sleeping better. Fx this is the first of many good nights. Now I just need to train dh to wake up to feed her and i can sleep, dh has now got up for work and changed her and I am hoping she will snooze so I can snooze in bed in front of the telly.

felix Henry has cow and gate is what we use. He might just have had too much?

maybe try pure orange juice? I know Ethan exploded when we used it in error.

we also ended up using vaseline and a cotton bud, vaselined up the bud, slightly inserted it into his bum and twirled it around, that made him poo. Gross, but we only needed to do it once. Maybe worth considering?

Hi all,

Apologies I've not caught up with everyone's news, but I just wanted to let you know that Eva Gene joined us yesterday lunchtime weighing 3.7kg. I was induced (drip) at 8am and she was here by 12.20pm, great birth and we are all as happy as can be.

Internet is useless here so will catch up with you all once we're out.

Good luck to everyone still waiting.

Congratulations only what a speedy birth. :)

Good luck percy sounds promising

Good luck percy!

Frizz that's great. I bet you feel amazing after getting a bit more sleep

Frying I was thinking about pure juice but didn't know if it was a bad idea but I'll give it a go. My friend also suggested the cotton bud thing but I'm too scared to do it in case I hurt her she's not been sick again since cottage cheese-gate so hopefully it was a one off.

Purple congrats! Lovely name.

I hope Olivia is home with you soon nature
Congratulations only!
Lovely to have you back sultana :)
Persephone seems to have a cold :( She's always been wheezy and snorty but the midwives all said this was normal. She was up all night and cried/coughed/sneezed after every feed. It could also be reflux, I'll ask the HV this afternoon. Poor little thing.

Congratulations only, nice to hear a positive story from the drip.

Hope things are progressing well percy

nature I'm sure you're doing a fantastic job even if it doesn't feel like it. It's so hard when they're in NICU especially when they're all tubed up, you're emotional & it all just feels like too much.

Please don't feel like a failure with expressing, I had an awful time at the beginning with it I really felt like a complete idiot as I was managing 0.2ml at a time kind of thing & I wouldn't believe it would get better. It did get better. If you're still hand expressing then see if you can find somewhere that will hire a medical grade medela swing pump. You feel like a dairy cow hooked up to them but they do really help. It took me nearly a week to get up to 30mls at a time but the pump really helped with that, I also found it less painful. Do the NICU have a breastfeeding specialist? Most of them do. If you can then have a chat with them (or just one of the NICU nurses) they've talked about this with every mummy they've had in there so they really do understand how hard it is & they will be able to help you. If you've spoken to them already then talk to them again & tell them you don't think you're doing it right, they will reassure you.

If Olivia is going to be in for a couple more days and you need to continue expressing then ask her nurse if you can bring one of her used blankets home with you each day, keep it with you so you can smell her when you're expressing at night then take it back in the next day.

I know it's all so upside down and difficult but you will be doing a brilliant job and you are being her mum in the only way you can right now. She will know you and respond to you - watch her monitors when you talk to her compared to the nurses. I promise you she responds differently to her Mummy, you provide her comfort which will help her get big and strong quicker x