January 2014 Thread 17 - and the final babies will be here any day now!

[Frizz1986]

Thought i would start up the last thread before we move over to postnatal thread.

Congratulations mrsv, glad you are both well.

Good luck to all those with partners working away.

No advice on colic or constipation, I have all these things to look forward to..

Last night was almost sane after I had a break down on dh as Alice wouldn't stop having sort feeds and not sleeping anywhere other than in me. He brilliantly took her to the living room feed her a bottle and battled out until she slept in her carry cot. Then feed her an expressed bottle for the middle night feed and she slept though till 8. Can't belive it!

Oh and the hv are of to a really bad start, they have me on their systems under my middle name and keep calling, texting, sending letters under that name even though I've told them twice. Even had to spell out my first name this morning. These are people that get to make decisions about Alice..

Congratulations MrsV, what a chunky wee thing! . I wonder who's still waiting for their late arrivals?

Hugs, tea and cake to those with Dps who are away.

MW weighed Cal yesterday and he's only lost 2oz.
He was very demanding last night. Wanting fed almost every hour. My boobs are enormous and sore, now my milks come in. But he's asleep now at least and dp has a day off. Ewan seems to be unwell and has bright red cheeks so he's sat on Dp watching Dr who.

I was planning on going out today but considering how Ewan and I are feeling we'll give it a miss.

Good luck to all those who have dps away. I couldn't do it!

Yay for weight gain etc.

Aurelia has been rather unsettled as well. Think its gas but its so hard to tell if it could be something else. She really strains to get it out and this morning was straining and grizzling for ages and then she did the most giant poop! Nice and runny so she cant be constipated so it must just be her trying to use her bowels.

Am off for my 6 week gp check today so on the bus alone with bubs! Ahhhhh scary! Was feeling really positive yesterday as my bleeding tailed off a bit over the weekend, but then overnight and this morning it was bright red again and took a lot of wipes to clear it all up Am so desperate for the bleeding to stop and it seems as soon as i get off my backside and try and do something it starts up again. Will be mentioning it to gp just to check that there isnt anything else going on that needs treating.

tarka & gummi - my dh goes at 5 am tomorrow and not back till Thursday night dreading it as his first day from paternity so in deep end.

A bit annoyed with me as they. took swab on day 4 and taken till today to let.me know he needs antibiotics.

Well we came out of the hospital yesterday evening.

Xander had a tongue tie that's now been snipped. Hoping that will result in better attachment and my milk coming in as it hasn't yet.

I have to say I've been reading back through the last few threads for the early days of the babies that are now a few weeks old. It's reassuring as at the moment Xander is really tricky to feed, settles great in the day but is very fussy at night and will only sleep on me, meaning I have had about 5 hours sleep in total since I went into labour Sat morning! Feel like I am doing something wrong but your posts show its all part of the process.

Bloody hard work this baby lark isn't it? Just waiting for first midwife visit hopefully she can help with the feeding side. Stay positive everyone!

I'm really surprised at how many babies have had a tongue tie! I think it should be something they should routinely check with every birth as it seems to be so common but so problematic if undiagnosed. Im sure it only takes a few minutes to check too?!

Glad you're home merry
The first few weeks really are harder than you think but it does get better and you get used to the lack of sleep very fast.

I thought they did check every baby for tongue tie. Meredith was certainly checked because I was watching the paediatrician check her. My nephew had an undiagnosed TT and it made feeding really hard for my sister.

Hi everyone and thanks frizz for the new thread.

Congratulations enormouse: I love the name, my brother is a Calum, so different spelling but same name! I agree things do get easier. My DD is three and a half and at school but she is quite immature and a definite typical only child. At first she was either trying to pick the baby up or having a temper tantrum about me not playing with her but within two weeks it settled down and now she will play happily unless v hungry or v bored. Lots of healthy snacks you can get out the cupboard and serve with one hand help a lot. She did have a stage around the three week mark of being the baby so she got more attention which was trying, so it helps to have someone to take the baby so you can spend more time with them then. I think it was just me not being fair to her though because we were home alone a lot and nour was cluster feeding all the time.

Congratulations too fly and mrsv and anyone I have forgotten.

Nour is five weeks today and has started having good days and bad days. The bad days consist of screaming, constant feeding and bringing his legs up to his stomach. Also bright red face, nothing calms him and he has no obvious wind. It sounds v similar to what you all have been experiencing. After a day or two of that he then spends a day sleeping all the time and falling asleep as soon as he is on the breast, so hopefully they are just growth spurts. He seems to be gaining weight fine.

humpty so glad you dont have an infection. I have deliberately not looked and am leaving that lovely job to the midwife at my six week appointment. Got a bit worried over the weekend that things were smelling funky but turned out I just needed a proper wash. Was being a bit lax because I have been so busy washing cleaning and getting house in order after the bed bug treatment and DD was off school all week with gastroenteritis, which DH has now caught. So glad I didnt go to the doctor, can just imagine the embarrassment of being told my personal hygiene is lacking!

Good work on the welsh anthem, nour similarly unimpressed but then the welsh performance was hardly stunning. Looking forward to them upping their game against Ireland, hopefully. Scrum really needs sorting, so hopefully gethin jenkins will be back and adam jones will get some confidence back.

How is alex doing on the poo front? If she hasn't been weighed recently it would be worth doing just to check she is gaining well as two days without poo for a bf baby is quite a long time, esp if her stools are nice and loose. I remember being told that until six weeks between four and six poos a day is the norm. It doesn't sound like Alex has a problem but it is worth checking as my DD spent her first three weeks not eating and no one picked it up. It may be completely different for mixed feeding, so please disregard if so. Hope I haven't worried you, newborns are hard enough without anything else to think about.

MIL made me really cross recently with advice given to DH. He was whining about having to help with DD because I spend so long feeding and she told him it is because I am doing it wrong and a baby should only have 15 minutes each side every three hours and nothing all night! DH took this as proof that I am making him do work so I can "sit down and feed all the time". MIL is v well intentioned but blunt, and DH clearly needs a kick in the balls. This was almost two weeks ago and he has since upped his game but I am still stewing.

Altered how the hell have you cleaned? I only have Aurelia but my jobs only just looks ok.
I am starting to think that I must have mega milk as Aurelia only feeds for 15mins on 1 side and that's normally it.
On the bus on the way home. 6 week check went well and bus journey is almost over and I have done it!

Well done to those who have cleaned/gone out!

today is my birthday. I'm 27! I left Henry with my mom and dh and i went shopping. I got a new coat, a lamp off my mom (it's beautiful) and a bedside table lamp. And chocolates.

we only left Henry for a couple of hours and i didn't like it.

oh, I'm bleeding still. It goes and comes back. It went kinda yellowy which is normal apparently, now it's red again. Not fun! Henry is 4 weeks tomorrow

altered it's better now that we're starting to settle into a routine and that ewans realising that Cal being here doesn't mean he's being shunted out.

Nour sounds like he's doing well.

frizz I think they all feed differently. Ewan would feed for 10-15 minutes at a time, thrash about and then go back on. It would take up to an hour to give him enough milk to settle back to sleep. Cals completely different and feeds for about half an hour.
Well done on getting to your check up though. Glad to hear it went well.

Happy birthday frying :) and and

Zachary has long feeds too.

Toby I don't think they check at our local hospital. The NCT bf lady certainly said they don't seem to, and Sylvie wasn't checked. I think if she was I'd probably still be bf right now

Altered at your DH!!! That's just bloody rude! Definitely needs a kick where the sun doesn't shine.

Frizz well done on the bus journey! Was it loads easier than you imagined? I think for me, it's thinking about it which makes it worse and I know when I've done it once I'll be fine.

Frying happy birthday!!! Good news on the shopping

Sylvie is still having problems with her tummy. She's really struggling to poo, but when she does it seems to be soft so I don't really understand why she's struggling. She has been crying/screaming on and off and really unsettled for about a week now, and she's constantly grunting and going red from pushing and I can see she's in pain I mentioned it to the HV yesterday and she said it will just be her getting used to the formula but it's been over 2 weeks since we swapped now and I would have thought she'd get a bit better at least. I'm now worried she's intolerant to milk but she hasn't got a rash (apart from some little bumpy spots at the side of her right eye) so I don't know.

Happy birthday frying

I am bleeding still at 6 weeks and mine has been red the whole time. Doc didnt seem bothered and neither did hv.

felix i did a test run with dh so i wasnt so scared. It was fine just annoying that there is only really 2 spaces for prams so have to hope they arent taken.
Could the discomfort be gas or sylvie getting used to her bowels. Aurelia is the same and is very uncomfortable at times and is pushing away but v soft poops (shes bf) Have read somewhere that it takes them a lot of effort to get anything through as its still undeveloped or something! Mentioned it at docs and she straight away said gas.

frying happy birthday!!

altered and felix I'm going to ring HV tomorrow re poos. Since yesterday morning, no more poos, had another screamy morning of seeming to need a poo, pulling up legs, grunting, stinky wind and no results!
She's still having anywhere from 10-90 mls of formula top up.

altered kick your DH from me, eh? Feeding is tiring, not a rest. Dick.

frizz well done on bus journey. Contemplating attempting solo journey to get her BCG jab. Am I mad?

Congrats mrsv as well!!

HV said it was because her digestive system is new and getting used to doing its job, but she just seems to be getting worse and not any better at all. She's just done a poo now which was very soft and now she's really happy sat in her bouncy chair thing! She's like a totally different baby. I just wish I knew the solution to make it better for her as she's crying in pain constantly

Hi all, We've been having unsettled evenings too. Hugh just wants to feed, with intermittent scream feeding. Bedtime at ten(for him and me) then usually involves another hour and a half's frantic feeding until he falls asleep. I have managed (once!) to get him to sleep by rocking his car seat when we were out, and he will fall asleep in the sling if I'm pottering but I'm feeling pretty inadequate about getting him to sleep as I cannot do it. I'm sure a lot of the trouble is that he's overtired,but as he only sleeps on me/ cosied into me I don't realistically know what to do to make it better if he won't fall asleep when we're watching TV in the evenings. Bathtime causes a lot of screaming so its a daytime activity.
Moan over - I'm using the thread to vent as DH is away for work...

Another one with unsettled evenings here.... Thought it was just some kind of witching (arsenic?) hour but gave her some dentinox earlier as she has been v farty gassy today and hopefully it will help. Was a bit worried about lack of poo earlier but she had a full on up the back poonami so panic over there. Good luck to others for tonight, it's heartbreaking when you can't figure out what to do to make it better...

Total respect to those who's DHs are working away, you are my heroes. DH is currently rocking grouchy baby giving me 10 mins to myself. Would be a gibbering wreck without the short breaks.

Managed a trip into town on the train today and fed her in a corner office in the old workplace. Woo hoo! feeling v tired now though. Going to try a sling library tomorrow to look for something to carry Emily round the house / down to local shops in so I can have some hands free time during the day. They rent them for £4-£9 for a fortnight depending on the type. Am a bit scared of the wrap slings as I have a v wriggly baby but can you use the carrier ones on newborns? Amy recommendations for ones I should look to try?

AAAAAARGH THE FUCKING SCREAMING!!!

puggle, that sounds exactly like our evenings. Unfortunately, DH is the one who usually gets her to sleep at night, so we'll have to see how it goes tonight with me on my own.

Today wasn't so bad, managed breakfast, getting dressed, cat feeding, lunch and laundry on my own. Would've struggled with eating this evening, but had family help, luckily. Two days, two nights to go!

Toby, lots of or maybe for you! Hope everything is ok?

OMG....forgot how hard newborns are. ;-(

Poor DS was sick all over our bed tonight too. Just what I need. A sicky toddler and a baby that doesn't like to be our down.

Hats off to those with other children and husbands working away. I don't know how u r doing it.
DH is away abroad with work for 2 nights this week but I have the PIL staying. They are being really great which I am so grateful for.

Congrats mrsv. What a big boy!!

Can someone send me the fb link??

Also, I'm feeling v guilty at the moment as I'm realising that I can't give Lara as much attention as I did with DS. she does sometimes have to cry when I'm seeing to DS. I feel bad as for him I would rush to see what was wrong. Hope I'm not 'damaging' her.

I'm also worried she's had a few green poos. She's putting on weight v well and was 1 lb over birth weight by 15 days. Strange.

Think I'm just tired and emotional.

Advice needed please, especially from those with big babies (humpty I remember Alex is big). Still in hospital but hopefully going home today. Only issue I can see is Henry's blood sugar. They checked it as he is big but it dropped from 4 to 2.6 and then he's not feeding very well (annoying after good latch and feed I thought at first attempt) and as his sugar was below 3 a few times they insisted on giving him formula to get it above 3. Which I agreed to but wasn't very happy when awful midwife was pouring 20ml down his throat (unsurprisingly spat back up) then tried syringing it straight down rather than putting in a drop etc. I had been told newborn stomachs are only 5ml so was ck concerned about over feeding making my breast feeding attempts harder. In the end they have about 10ml which got his blood sugar above 3. The blood sugar last night (after my attempts at bf) were 2.9 and through the night he's cried a lot but I'm sure isn't taking much colostrum in at all so I'm sure today's checks will be lower again and back to mixed feeding debate. Are all of you topping up? If so how much?

Also the guidelines I've been given on meconium poos was to expect 1 on day 1. Henry has done 7 and seems to have tummy ache. Midwives are aware but from your experience can this be normal?