March 2016 Babies!! Thread #7 The one where we all say.... "Stay put Flump!!"

[Paperblank]

Stay where you are Flump!!!

After writing that. I just vomited twice in twenty minutes. Feeling down. Can't sleep and just feel so weak and sad. I can't cope with this. Off to the doctors again tomorrow- I can't work like this

Sorry to hear you're still struggling Ginger.

I recommend, from experience, not logging or monitoring your sleep when it gets this bad. Otherwise it becomes a source of anxiety in itself. When I went back to work after DS, I realised that obsessing over the numbers of how many times he woke, how long for, how much sleep I got in total just made me feel so much worse. If I just got on with it, deliberately not looking at the time and just thought about how tired I felt it was much easier to deal with. It also eliminated that "if I fall asleep now I can get XX hrs sleep" effect that is doomed to fail!

Honestly, it made a huge difference. Please try it!

That vicious sleep cycle is awful -used to do it when I had to be up at 4:30 for breakfast shifts in a hotel, I feel for you ginger has gaviscon or rennies etc eased the burning at least?
It may just be worth grabbing as many naps as you can and asking your dp to just leave you be while you get as much sleep as you can cram in no matter what time of day it is.
Just ordered the cotbed today - getting more and more real now.

Xmas tree is up, feeling very cosy and festive.

Hi Ginger I have also started with restless legs and a restless bottom (weird ) where like you say it's like all itchy/ tingly and there is no satisfaction. I'm not sleeping well either. What helped me is... My birthing ball. I sat on their doing gentle exercise and stretches for about half an hour (at 1.30am) and it did seem to help. Invest in a ball, they're great for back pain which is why I've got mine. They're not just for ladies at full term, they're great for pelvic floor and core exercises and might help with that bladder!

ginger & gem sorry to hear about the restless legs.

I've had awful cramp for the last few days. Have been hobbling about but my next midwife appointment is tomorrow so hopefully she can give some advice then.

All the diet info really useful. I really need to cut down on the fizzy drinks!

Looking forward to hearing about nct classes. Mine don't start until feb!

Hi ginger - standing is the 2nd worst thing to do for hours after sitting (for anyone, not just pregnant!). It's that rhythmic continuous gentle motion you get from walking that helps so much. I hope things are better for you tonight, whatever you've tried. Definitely see the GP if you're still vomiting, especially if there's still red. It's a rather grim thought, but if it is red, if you vomit again can you collect a sample to take in?

gem 2nd the ball recommendation - I have one for at work and will be getting a second one to have at home over the holidays. Everyone in the office is laughing at me for bouncing gently all day long, but my back is so much better in this pregnancy and I am sure that is part of it.

neh hope the midwife appt goes well tomorrow!

Q We were given a cot yesterday, completely out of the blue. Our next door neighbours had theirs secondhand from a friend who doesn't want it back, so it came to us! The mattress is completely unused, their youngest refused to do anything other than co-sleep and is getting ready for a toddler bed now. Someone else we know has a co-sleeper crib to sell on, so no need for Ikea hacks, we'll just use the real deal.

DS and I put up our window lights this afternoon. We have outdoor baubles and outdoor lights too but I'm not sure where I'll connect them (we moved house this year). I'm off to potter away at my annual Christmas puzzle. The picture is a wooden box with compartments and different Christmas ornaments/decorations things in it.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I went for an hours walk earlier. Been trying to sleep since 4pm and nothing, not even five minutes sleep- I feel shattered I don't understand.
Gem- I will order one on Amazon now. I hope you get good sleep tonight. I truly feel for you- it's just horrible

So far tonight I've tried bathing, relaxing music, hot milk. Nothing- it's going to be a long night :'( I can't switch off. I just want to be put under general anaesthetic lol

Re the vomit, it's not red anymore but because I can't sleep it's getting worse

Sleep - a few years ago I was under a great deal of stress. At the same time I got the paul McKenna "I can make you thin" cd & book. I didn't bother reading the book but put cd on headphones at night. It was hopeless, I always fell asleep before he got to the bit about getting me thin...anyway shortly after this revelation, he brought out "I can make you sleep". It worked just the same :-) Try and get a copy of the CD or even download the track from iTunes or something. It really worked so well for me x

Ginger sorry if I've missed this but have you tried doing gentle stretches before bed? I used to have very bad restless legs (and arms) for years and I found stretching out every muscle in my legs one by one, then doing a big full body stretch really helped relax them. I also took some very effective parkinson's medication, but that's obviously not a possibility for you at the moment!

indom thats interesting about the possible causes of colic. I think that the unknown cause is what scares me the most! Anyway, fx we all have lovely easy newborns this time round!

Beautiful lots of people (even hcp) use reflux and colic interchangeabley but colic is unexplained evening crying that normally stops by 3 months; reflux is when they cry all the bloody time because they're in pain from being sick so frequently. Neither is much fun, but hopefully you'll never have to experience them first hand .

Hi ladies,

Ginger, I'm sorry to hear about your sleep issues. I'd also recommend some kind of meditation/ relaxation cd. I had an awesome recording of a practice called 'Yoga nidra' which my pregnancy yoga teacher would do at the end of every session. It guides you round the body focusing on different parts, basically taking your awareness inwards and away from any outside stimulus then into visualisation. I pretty
Much never get to the visualisation bit as I'd be in a meditative state by then and altho it guides you out of it at the end, if you're in bed it then sends you off to sleep. Sounds like it would work the same as the Paul McKenna one. Look on iTunes for yoga nidra. I also used it during my labour with Zach too and it definitely helped to calm me down.

Zach is continuing to do fabulously. He is now on 7ml of my milk every 2 hours which the nurses are increasing by .5ml every 6 hours. When he gets to 10ml every 2 hours (hopefully tomorrow) that is considered to be full feeds for his size and he will need no extra fluids at all, everything will be coming from me! I am producing a crazy amount of milk, around 160ml - 200ml in total each pump which, bearing in mind at present in a day he's only having 84ml and I'm pumping around 7x per 24 hours is a lot in my freezer and the one at the hospital! Pumping full time is a proper commitment, I'm not enjoying setting my alarm for 4am every night for an hour awake pumping, sorting milk and resterilising all the gear (it's much easier when you have a baby waking you!) but it's worth it to know I'm doing the best for Zach I possibly can (it Also helps to give me a purpose!).

Ffaux, I'm using a medela pump supplied by the hospital, it's a double one...a lactina electric plus, but I think all medela ones are good. They are the only sort provided on all the neonatal units we've visited.

I'm part of a mums FB group from when I had DS1 and many of them are American and went back to work when babies were 4-8 weeks (as is normal over there). Many of them pumped full time til their babies were almost a year, which at the time I was in awe of. One recommendation they had is making a hand free pumping bra from a sports bra with slits cut for the funnels.,,..I really now need to do this as with double pumping you literally spend half an hour having to hold the funnels to both boobs so it's a struggle to do anything else like read or use phone (which is really needed during middle of the night pumps with no TV to watch!). That is next on my to do list!

Zach is continuing to breath on his own with a little extra pressurised air (no extra oxygen needed) into his nose via the 'hiflow' system. He is now back up to 818g in weight after being born at 800g then dropping to 700g in the first couple of days. He continues to surprise the drs and nurses with quite how well he's doing. It's amazing. His eyes have finally opened yesterday too which is lovely!

DS1 came home today after 2 weeks with nanny in London. It was soooo good to see him, I've missed him so much. He was really excited to see me as well which was lovely and kept saying 'mummy ok now'. We took him to meet Zach today and he was suitably unimpressed! His first words were 'where's the little kitchen?' - I'd been telling him there was a playroom with a little kitchen at the hospital, obviously a much more exciting prospect for a 2 year old than a tiny new brother in a plastic box!

I will try to get on here on my laptop so I can post a couple of other pics of him as I've been taking them on my
SLR, good to have inspiration to use my proper camera again!

Earlier you were discussing getting babies accustomed to bottles. My health visitor with DS1 gave me some great advice re getting bottles and breastfeeding working. She suggested pumping once a day in the morning then saving that milk for DH to give either at bedtime or in the night in a bottle. I started at 4 weeks and would feed DS on one boob in bed in the morning whilst pumping the other, therefore using time that I was stuck to one place anyway! She also suggested only feeding from one boob per session (I know most recommend doing one then moving to the other which can get much more complicated with remembering which you did last.) For us until DS was much older and needed both boobs, this worked a treat as did DH giving the bedtime bottle. It freed me up at bedtime and meant if I did want to go out for the evening or if we had a babysitter we could.

Wow, I've written an essay! Apologies. I should really get to bed as need to pump in less than four hrs. Night! Zzzzzzzzz

Missi so glad to hear Zach is still doing well! And well done you for all that pumping!
Glad DS1 is back with you too.

Well here I am again. Been awake since 11:45!!!
Managed two one hour naps before that.

Trinpy- thanks for the suggestions. I tried stretching at midnight and walking around for 30 minutes, still awake an hour later here :'(

Missi- I will look into it.

Is their any tablets/remedies safe in pregnancy that gp can give me? I'm going to need signing off but I'm terrified of being alone all day whilst oh works. I'll faint eventually from this. Going to see my boss in morning to explain then see doctor hopefully.

Glad to hear Zach is doing good and that you have ds1 with u to x

Morning. I'm with Ginger today on the tired bus. My own stupid fault though working too late and taking too long to switch my brain off. Idiot.

Today is not a day for caffeine rationing.

Got DSs first parents evening too.

Morning, finally fell asleep at 5:00 ish, in tears. Hope your ok xx

Morning everyone.

Sorry to hear you're both feeling so tired today Ginger and Indom. Hope today isn't too exhausting to get through through.

Great news on Zach missi! It must be really hard doing all that pumping but I'm sure so worth it to see him regain hus birth weight and keep doing ao well.

I begged dh to look after ds last night - he's been sleeping badly for days - so I managed to get a good block of undisturbed sleep. I can't wait for maternity leave now!

Morning everyone, joining you on the tired bus. Taking ds to the hairdressers this morning and not sure where I'm going to find the stamina!

Missi, it sounds like Zach is doing amazingly!!! Are you able to have cuddles or is he still under the lights/on machines? Are you still in hospital yourself or are you home now? Your biggie sounds like my ds - he'd be more interested in the toys too!

Great news on Zachary missi. He sounds like he's doing amazingly well. Hope you are looking after yourself and getting lots of support from your DH and family.

Ginger insomnia is miserable. As a fellow insomniac I second Indom's advice about not looking at the clock and tracking what time it is or how much sleep you're getting - that just makes it worse. Get up, move to the sofa, read (nothing with blue light) and then try to fall asleep again a bit later after a break.

I had my first labour dream last night! It was exactly what I hope doesn't happen, I was being induced on a drip. Woke up before anything interesting happened!

Thanks everyone, phoned in sick from work managed a few hours between 5-7:45am this morning but it's not enough. I've suffered with restless legs before but only every on airplanes and in the cinema etc and then as soon as I get up and move around it's been gone. My oh has had to go to work today and I miss him- it sounds soppy but I just want a cuddle. My mum is not a part of my life at the moment either but that's a long story so I feel quite alone and I don't have any other friends. The only people in my life are my oh, his family, my dad, brother, nan and uncle. I don't see my dad much as he lives with my mum and she doesn't let me in the house when she is their. I just don't exist to her anymore.
Phones the doctors and they said they only had urgent appointments left for today despite phoning ten minutes after opening times (I tried before and line was blocked) started speaking to the lady on the phone and when she asked "are you sure your ok you sound very tearful" I just said "no not really" and she booked me an appointment straight away without even asking what the problem was. I must of sounded like a right fool. Their must be something they can right? I read somewhere that the drug I was using for my morning sickness in earlier pregnancy (phenergan) can be a sedative as well but as its a anti histamine it could irritate restless legs so I'm a bit unsure what they can do. Still at least baby was kicking me at night that kind of makes up for it. We break up for Christmas at work on the 21st and go back on the 4th but I'm not sure I can work at the moment.

Suz- I hope your doing ok. Tiredness is the worst.

Missi lovely to hear from you, you have been in my thoughts. So glad to hear Zach is doing so well, what a little trooper!

Ginger that is really sad about your mum, I'm sorry you are going through that, especially now . I am having a particularly bad bout of health anxiety at the moment and it has made me think of you - it is so relentlessly exhausting, isn't it? I'm sure you didn't sound like a fool at all, it was lovely of the receptionist to get you booked in - I'm sure she understood you weren't feeling ok.

another one knackered here - a bloody house alarm in my street woke me up at 4am and didn't stop going for about an hour!!

It really is exhausting. Did you suffer health anxiety before becoming pregnant or has pregnancy bought it on for you?
I hope you get some peace from it soon and a better nights sleep tonight. Blooming house alarm. An hour is a long time especially at the time of the morning

Yes I've had health anxiety on and off my whole life but mine is a bit weird in that it extends to other people instead of myself...eg at the moment DP has a slightly odd looking mole and I've completely convinced myself it's skin cancer, am always making the poor man go to the GP! Or my mum, I do the same with her a lot although unlike DP she doesn't pander to me and won't go to the doctor...

Think pregnancy has definitely made my anxiety worse though - think that's natural!

Big big love to anyone with health anxiety. I have it too... I'm getting professional help.

Missi how lovely to hear from you, I think about you quite a lot and wonder how Zach is getting on, it sounds as if he's doing great.

Missi Glad to hear that Zach is doing so well, and glad that your older DS is back with you.

Ginger I cant really help because I don't know what it's like to suffer from anxiety but is there anyway that you can concentrate on things even an hour or a morning at a time, I am sure that the advice you get on line is great and I know even having people I don't know but are at about the same stage as me experiencing some of the same problems is useful in knowing what is and isnt ok etc but typing it up especially at 3am might make you dwell on it more? I'm not saying stop if it helps but that perhaps put a rubbish film on to distract yourself or something..

Not sleeping is the absolute pits, even the few nights interrupted sleep I got with my cough left me exhausted and it gives you time to think about things you shouldn't but you are going to have some more sleepless nights coming up in 2016 and perhaps you need to find a way through these with some of the thought techniques the others have suggested, positive spin on it is that its good practice... I hope that when you see the doctors today that they can help you out and perhaps advise you with someone to help you.

Hope everyone else with poor nights sleep is managing to get through Monday ok, only four more get ups until the weekend! Perhaps we all need some retail therapy did anyone buy anything exciting this weekend?