Ttc#1 Thread 14 GRADS. New year, new babies, new challenges! These sprogs keep amazing us every day!

[AudreyBradshaw]

Behold, the wonder of birth! Members from 6 weeks bfp to post-partum wonder Mamas! No question to grotty or minging.

We've come full circle from obsessing about cervical mucus to now obsessing if it's our vagina baby plug going! What larks!

Lots of talk about poo, ours and now babies too! Baby brain is REAL! From morning sickness in the first trimester to the third trimester struggle of getting out of bed ( "walrus-ing"in our house), to actual real babies who are growing so fast! Discussion on the merits of sleepyhead and Ewan the dream sheep. Now into teething and sleep regression, how to manage our mothers/MILs whilst being sleep deprived.

Sooo many gorgeous babies now! And equally lovely Mummy's! We are amazing! What a year! Can you believe it's been over a year since our first tentative TTC thread!? Look how far we've come!

Roll up for TTC #1 Grads!

The same people asking me if I should be out are perfectly happy to pass baby around like pass the parcel whilst coughing and sneezing and "jokingly" suggest that we should just leave her with them. Eh no ..

I think a pound a week is fine soda, so a 500 kcal deficit, probably aiming for 1800kcal at the lowest whilst breastfeeding would result in that weight loss. Slimming world or weight watchers are probably the safest bet. Remember they say it takes 2 years(!) to recover from a pregnancy and ensuring a balanced diet will speed this up.

Hope you get some answers from the MRI miley.

My name is Fiona surname M.

After all the struggle with my milk coming in I'm now engorged and it's sore 😕 I think she's struggling to latch too because of the swollen-ness ugh! Got some advice from health visitor tho so trying it

If she's struggling feef you can always hand express off a tiny bit, can help your letdown be less forceful if she's struggling with that. Engorgement wise, it'll pass. Once your boobs work out how much she needs and how often then they'll go down and be soft all the time again. It's quite shortlived this phase.

Is he trying to keep H happy to let you have a break Miley or just being a bit useless and handing him back so you have to do it all?

Thanks irregular, glad it's short lived!!!

Say hello to baby Adeline! Born at 19:10 on the 4th after waters went at 11 on the 3rd - guess I didn't need that sweep after all!

I called midwives in at 4am, was 4cm when they examined me at 5, then progressed to 8cm by 9am and was pushing by 1. Progression slowed, and I got out of the pool and started climbing up and down the two flights of stairs in my house to get things going again. After the midwives tried a few different positions, they ended up calling an ambulance as baby's hear rate started to rise.

At the hospital, they stuck me on the drip. My bladder hadn't been emptying, so needed a catheter for that. Baby's head was transverse, and she had her hands up. The drip worked, and a midwife turned baby's head enough for me to birth her naturally. Unfortunately I ended up with a 3rd degree tear, and needed a spinal to have it repaired in theatre. I'd had a few puffs of gas and air when the midwife was turning baby's head, but otherwise nothing!

So not the greatest experience in the world, but I'm home since lunch yesterday and Adeline really is the sweetest little thing. Now if we could crack this breastfeeding thing, we'd be all set!

Oh congratulations May - what a little beauty! Gorgeous name as well.

Hope you're feeling alright - sounds like a fair ordeal at the end there.

Congratulations May on your beautiful baby girl! Well done! Amazing news! Allow yourself to be completely looked after now and just enjoy your lovely little one! 🎀🌹💟🍰💗🍇🍦🐘

Congratulations may! She's beautiful. Sound like a traumatic experience but glad that Adeline is here safely! Love her name too, that was on our list of options! Hope that you recover well.

Congratulations May she's absolutely beautiful and you sound very pragmatic about a rather stressful sounding birth - I'm impressed! I hope you manage to get the feeding sorted, the first few days and weeks were the worst for us, now it's generally easy.
Weighing in for the weight loss challenge, I'm currently 11st 7, need to loose at least a stone and ideally back to 10st but that's a serious challenge!
My sister has just got engaged so I've got between a year and 18 months to look good in a bridesmaids dress!!

Oh May, she's beautiful! Many congratulations and well done you!

Sounds a bit rough, but glad you're both ok now. Enjoy sleepy newborn cuddles, and hope the feeding goes well x x x

Congratulations may! She's so beautiful and I love her name!! Impressed with how positive you sound about your labour, too!

I agree with dr, the first week was a tough time but eventually it just clicked so fingers crossed it does for you, too.

Congratulations May!!! 💗💗💗

Oh my goodness she's beautiful, congratulations May!!! Adeline is a gorgeous name as well 💗 Sounds like a bit of a stressful birth towards the end but you sound like you coped really well with it. Hope you are being looked after and enjoying gorgeous baby cuddles and that the feeding improves soon

Huge congrats may!

Congratulations May!!!

Congratulations may!!

Huge congratulations may! It sounds like you had a really tough time, I hope you recover quickly. The first few days of bf are really tough, but everything gets easier! Xx

Congratulations May. She is beautiful. You did so well with the birth! Hope you recover well and quickly. Accept all help offered like stardrey says. The breastfeeding will come I agree the first few weeks, first week was the hardest. Starting to get easier now at 4 weeks still not completely cracked. If you need a bottle of formula or two this week don't worry! Do what you can to get some sleep

Has everyone left for Facebook?

Having a tough few days here - she had a fever and was very miserable after injections on Monday and sleep is terrible at the moment. She's up every 1.5-2 hours to feed at night and I'm shattered. Saw the health visitor today and she said that A definitely didn't need to feed through the night like that and was just using me for comfort and to let her cry a bit more. Hmmmm.

Awe soda you poor thing, and poor A too. How old is she now? If she's off colour and wanting a feed/fuss and you're happy to do it then I'd definitely ignore the HV. They're so tiny still. Are you able to sleep during the day when baby has a sleep?

Thanks audrey. She's just over 4 months old. I'm definitely happy to feed and settle her when she's miserable after injections but definitely not happy to do it every 1.5 hours during the night indefinitely!!

And no - no sleep for me during the day She tends to have short naps in the house but then have a longer nap if I'm pushing her in the pram.

No, you definetly don't want to be doing that indefinitely, you'll be on your knees! White noise machine? Does she have a dummy? I'm trying to think of things which would encourag her to soothe but you're probably way ahead if me and have tried everything.

Thanks Audrey. Yep to all those! She now takes her dummy out and chucks it! We were swaddling her still but she rolled over for the first time the other day so we can't swaddle any more. I'm at a bit of a loss really....

Soda, it sounds like (what I understand is) the 4-month sleep regression thing. I think we've got it too, despite Q being a bit younger. At night she's only going 2 hours at a time, sometimes just 1.45.

From what I can gather, there are two schools of thought:

1. It's a permanent change to their sleeping habits as they start to sleep more like adults. Light sleep first, taking longer to go down, and therefore harder for them to sleep. You need to do sleep training/coaching, and while there are some no-cry methods, a bit of cry-it-out may be needed. You need to help to teach them to get themselves back to sleep.

1. It's another phase and it will pass. Their sleep is disrupted while they go through a pretty big developmental leap, and it's quite scary for them. It's not about feeding through the night, but wanting more comfort more often, and needing support (particularly boob if you're bfing). They're learning to roll and sit up, and a lot more of the world is suddenly available to them, but combined with the frustrations of not having complete control over their bodies yet. A scary time for them.

These are quite big generalisations, but I think it's kind of what the 4-month sleep regression is about. I don't know what's right, and I know people who have done #1 and it's been fine (ended up with a good sleeper), and people who have done #2 and it's been fine.

I'm hoping towards #2, but I'm pretty exhausted! Going to see how it goes.