November 2017 #5. You wait ages for a baby, then 3 come along at once. Ante/post-natal chat ...

[Zampa]

No specific post-natal category so I've added it to the normal ante-natal category ...

DD has just done another stretch from midnight until 0400 and definitely not booze related this time. Hoping this pattern sticks!

Merry Christmas ladies 🎄 enjoy your first Christmases with your new babies. Thank you to all of you for your support and friendship this year, I hope you will all be spoilt x x

My Christmas wish for us all is a beautiful night of sleep before the festivities tomorrow.. merry Christmas everyone, have a lovely time

J has been gradually getting himself into more of a sleep routine... we went away for two night and both nights away, even though his usual evening routine wasn't followed, he slept 5 hours and then 3 hours. Then last night it took me a while to get him to settle so he finally did at 11pm but didn't wake up until 5am this morning! I couldn't believe it.

I know everyone has their own systems, and I tried to follow other people's routines etc and it just wasn't working. I then got an old diary out from when we had our dd and remembered she went in her own room with her monitor at 4 weeks old. So trying Jasper in his own room has really made a difference as I think because I am such a poor sleeper I was keeping him awake.

We managed baby's first Mass without any dramas

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you all have a wonderful time filled with lots of lovely sleep.

Happy Christmas to you all! Hope you all have a lovely day and enjoy the November babies' first Christmas.

We were up at 4.45am today - lots of tea and Christmas biscuits needed!

Happy Christmas everyone!

Has anyone got their period back yet? I'm feeling ominously crampy. DD isn't even 5w yet! I'll be really unimpressed if it is menstrual cramps. DS1 kept them at bay for about 4w but DS2 was more like 4m. DD is feeding better than either of them so I'd hoped it'd be longer.

I am also feeling like my period is coming and keep spotting a bit... also feel very bloated (although that could be the copious amounts of gin!)

Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry it’s late. I’d also like to second what @sock says and thank you all for your support this year 😊😘
No period yet for me! Is anyone else suffering night sweats still? Mine come and go but I just had another one yuck! Matilda is over 5 weeks, and I’ve had them since the night she was born, really want this sweating to end soon lol. Bloody hormones. x

Yes to the night sweats haz! Although getting slightly less now - Freddie is 7 weeks old.

How have all your babies got on with Christmas? We've had lots of visitors and F has been pretty overwhelmed, it's been hard to get him to sleep in the day. We've got snow here today which has given us an excuse to cancel today's visitors and hopefully we'll have a quiet day at home.

Hi all hope you all had a merry Christmas. E was 2 weeks old yesterday and he is def a Velcro baby. He has managed one night in his buggy as his cot is just a disaster to put him down in. I am now co sleeping and dh is in a different room which is horrible but at least he is getting some sleep! E wakes around 10 then 3 and 7 with just under an hour at each feed and change. Yesterday he was awake from 9am till 1pm with a 20min nap! We were at our witts end as nothing worked to settle him. My milk is now in fine but I don't think it's filling him up. Have been told babies should be awake for an hour and sleep for 3 but he is no where near That! Much love to all x

Felicity has been so good over Christmas. Chilled out for most of the day and then sleeping in the Snuzpod next to our bed at night - last night from 1:15 til 7:15. I was actually waiting for her to wake up this morning. It's still been a total ball ache to get her to sleep in the first place but getting a 6 hour stretch once she's down is amazing. Unfortunately I can't just relax and enjoy it as I suspect it may be because she's coming down with the cold I've had for the last few days .

No period yet here, I thought I'd have had it by now (6.5 weeks) since we're formula feeding. My cycles were all to pot before pregnancy though so I don't know why I was expecting them to do anything normal after.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas with their little ones.

Glad it’s not just me @Buttery! It makes me feel disgusting 😖

@Motherhippy that sounds hard having your DH elsewhere but it’s whatever makes life easiest for you! We swap sides of the bed during the night so DH gives Matilda a bottle at one of the feeds (usually formula or sometimes expressed) and then we switch over for the next feed. That way we both have a period of sleep where we aren’t disturbed by her waking up for a feed. It’s finding a pattern that works for you isn’t it.

Hope your little one isn’t getting ill @accrual.

Matilda has started sleeping for an extra hour during the night this week - the best Christmas present ever! She goes down at half 1 after a feed and sleeps until half 5 which is way more bearable than the 4am graveyard feed! I had started to get used to it though and sprang out of bed at 4am the first night, put my dressing gown on, turned to her and said “right let’s get your nappy changed!” And looked down at a sound asleep baby! I very quietly took my dressing gown off and laid back down lol. X

Thank you @hazanduck I've now been feeding e on and off for 2 hours and he is no where near falling back to sleep! I've done skin to skin checked of f the list of things that could be wrong and there is nothing.... He is a very windy baby but I have no idea what to do! X

Sounds like he's just cluster feeding, building up your supply @motherhippy. Ignore all the stuff about 'should sleep 3 hours at a time' etc. Babies haven't read the rule book. Have you got a sling you can pop him in?

Yes @butterybollocks but I'm still recovering from a c section so don't know if I can use it. Am worried if he gets too comfy on us to sleep then he will never go down in his buggy etc.... or am I worrying about this too early on and just enjoy the closeness? X

Depending on what sling you've got it should be OK - baby should be high enough for you to kiss his head, with my sling that means it sits above my c section scar.
Google '4th trimester' - newborns need to be held. I'm just going with it and enjoying the snuggles, i'll worry about putting him down to sleep when he's a bit older.

I agree @buttery they just need to be held at that stage. I’ve now learnt to differentiate between her cries whether she genuinely needs something. Sometimes she is just grizzling and wants to be picked up because she is bored but if I need to get on with something like have a shower I just have to let her grizzle, and she is usually sound asleep within 30 seconds or just lies there making little gurgling noises to herself. If she really needs something she lets me know as I’m sure your little man would for you. But the first month I barely put her down. The cluster feeding is exhausting :( but it does get better! X

@theotherendofthesockportal thank you all too for your support this year, what a year it has been! We had a few very grizzly days over Christmas then last night really good sleep which felt like a miracle. Back to broken sleep tonight and I think because we are in Leap 2 of wonder weeks (according to app). I hope you've all had a good few days xx

Good morning all.... Thank you for all of your help. We think e has colic so we got some infacol which is suitable from birth. After having it he slept for 6 hours waking up for a feed once but was then up for 5 hours constantly crying or grizzling. He was still hungry after being sick but was so reluctant to feed him after in case he did it again. Eventually I got up with him and went on the sofa and he fed until he fell asleep for 4 hours. Cluster feeding is exhausting! I hope for a better day today. Hope you are all well. X

We are having a nightmare. We went to register J at the docs and book him in for his jabs either this week or next week and we were told they have absolutely nothing until 17th Jan which will make him 11 weeks! On top of it all, the staff were incredibly rude and they just said if I didn't like it then maybe I should register somewhere else!!!

That is shocking @Durez! I thought it was bad enough that my local surgery booked my 6 week check up and Matilda’s 8 week check up in the same appointment at 7 weeks as they had hardly any availability. Can you complain to your Midwife? Or health visitor? They must want to see them at that certain age for a reason! X

@Motherhippy the colic pain is horrible I hate seeing her writhing in pain. We give her gripe water which is suitable from 4 weeks and she seems to like the taste. And a Midwife in hospital told me I’d never have to wind her if I breasted! What a load of bollocks that was lol! X

Thanks hazanduck..... yes we have gripe water to use when he is 4 weeks..... He has got himself into the cycle of waking about 10pm and being really grizzly and clingy until around 2am which is helpful! Also he has started to be sick at every feed which then means he is hungry again soon after. We are going to a breast feeding support group this morning and getting h in weighed to see how he is doing. I've only managed 3 hours sleep so it should be interesting! Hope you are all well x

Hope the group is helpful motherhippy, you must be exhausted. He sounds like he may be in a bit of an over tired cycle? (I'm a bit obsessed with avoiding over tiredness as I think it just messes up newborn sleep so much!).

What are you all doing with your babies in the evenings? We're keeping F with us downstairs until we go up to bed at 9.30ish in order to follow sids guidelines. But I think he needs more help to learn the difference between day and night now, so I feel like we need an evening routine? We used to put DD down in her bed with the monitor on at this age but sids guidelines were different then.