Due August 2021 - Welcome to the World!

[PurplePansy05]

Welcome to the chattiest birth club on MN! Newcomers always welcome 💐

14 gorgeous new babies have joined us already, welcome to the world 💖💙🥳

@Smurf123 - Welcome to the world, baby Sophia 💖
@wimbler - Welcome to the world, baby boy 💙
@Jessicapebbles - Welcome to the world, baby Ebony💖
@Inmypjsagain - Welcome to the world, baby boy💙
@PurplePansy05 - Welcome to the world, baby Leo Alexander 💙
@WinterBabyof89 - Welcome to the world, baby Rosie 💖
@Winecoffeeteamum - Welcome to the world, baby Emily 💖
@Ready2020 - Welcome to the world, baby Rowan 💖
@Magik01 - Welcome to the world, baby Isaac 💙
@Hoares3 - Welcome to the world, baby Ellis 💙
@Daffodil21 - Welcome to the world, baby Elliot James 💙
@sarah13xx - Welcome to the world, baby Freddie 💙
@Biscuitcat - Welcome to the world, baby Rowan 💙
@Whatshouldbemyusername - Welcome to the world, baby Arya-Nyah 💖

Counting down until we welcome 20+ new arrivals:

@MrsB2019x - Induction w/c 9 August, Girl 💖
@Dia12 - EDD 8 August, Girl 💖
@Aaaaa1519 - EDD 13 August, Girl 💖
@Angelesque - C-section 16 August, surprise 💛
@lucyrp - EDD 16 August, surprise 💛
@livingwithbees - EDD 16 August, surprise 💛
@BertieBotts - EDD 16 August, Boy 💙
@WolfMother - EDD 17 August, Boy 💙
@Caz1226 - EDD 17 August, Boy 💙
@Millymay13 - C-section 17 August, surprise 💛
@RandomCatGenerator - C-section 19 August, surprise 💛
@Smallbean27 - EDD 19 August, surprise 💛
@Sheisfee - EDD 19 August, Girl 💖
@Alittlexmasmagic - EDD 22 August, surprise 💛
@LottSE20 - EDD 22 August, surprise 💛 @notinthestarsigns - EDD 23 August (but likely to be brought forward induction/C-section), surprise 💛
@Fran919 - EDD 25 August, surprise💛
@Ava50x - EDD 25 August, Boy 💙
@ame88 - EDD 28 August, Girl 💖
@HopefulB - EDD 29 August, surprise 💛

It's officially THE month! Watch this space! xx

Thanks girls @wimbler He felt lukewarm to touch and looked paler than usual, that's what made me check in the first place. You're right about sepsis.

I think Leo has reflux too. He seems to be straining his tummy and bottom half of his body a lot after feeding and vomits regularly after food too. Not projectile, but a fair bit of milk. He doesn't like being put down flat after feed, he screams. He is windy and hiccupy and likes being burped by DH. I spoke to the dr at the hospital and to my HV and they just said reflux is normal and to continue as we are, but I'm not quite sure if this is enough and my instinct is he's not back to birth weight because of the vomiting. Maybe I should push further on this. xx

@Smurf123 Solomon has exactly the same. Lots of grunting and groaning and crying after every feed. No amount of burping seems to help. If you get any answers or things to try, I’m all ears. It makes night time feeds a nightmare and I can’t bare his crying :(

@lucyrp congratulations! I’m so happy for you!

@PurplePansy05 Bless you!! I would trust your mummy instinct and push it if you think there is something that could make him more comfortable. Seeing the difference it can make it really is worth it xx

Got another winding tip from my FIL. I'll try and explain it!!

One hand behind at the top of their back, one hand under their chin and supporting under their arms, then lift them up so you stretch them out. No patting needed, can rub the back if you want. I'm rubbish at winding him but this worked first time!

@Jessicapebbles glad the gaviscon is helping!
@RandomCatGenerator I'll let you know if I find any solutions! I've tried dentinox drops and today tried gripe water for first time but it's hard when bf to get her to take it as she can't really take it from a spoon or the syringe provided with it.
@PurplePansy05 it's hard to know how much to push it isn't it, I think I'll mention it again to my HV when she next comes but that's not for another 3 weeks

I was watching this earlier today. It starts off being about paced bottle feeding but by about 10/11 mins in she changes to a demo of "wonky winding" which looks useful.

www.instagram.com/p/CEHHW6_gNBT/

@Inmypjsagain thanks for asking, I'm doing OK, just wishing this baby would make a move already! Due tomorrow and no signs of labour whatsoever... Just gotta be patient- whatever that means!

@PurplePansy05 so glad to hear Leo is OK, sorry you had such a scare. My DC2 had sepsis at one week and he also had a low temperature. Reading your post brought back some horrible memories! But so glad he's OK.

@lucyrp huge congratulations! What a beautiful baby! And I've got the same babygrow from Next, I love those little rainbows! Glad you got the birth you wanted, that is such lovely news. Now I feel like i'm truly the last one left!!

Had my first wobble tonight, surprised it’s taken this long! I only cried once on the second day after we got home about how much I love him then haven’t cried since. I think I was just riding on a wave of sheer relief and happiness at how well the section went and the fact he got here okay that I haven’t had a chance to think of anything else til now. My partner went back to work yesterday and offered to do the night feeds but I insisted he stayed in bed. It’s only day 2 but the reality of being at home alone with Freddie and doing all the night time get ups is already getting to me 🙈 Couldn’t even get a shower this morning. It’s been really hot here and he’s been a lot more unsettled than usual today, wanting fed every hour and screaming if it doesn’t happen instantly. My partner came in, went a run then asked if he could go for a shower before helping me bath him and it just tipped me over the edge the fact he thought he could have the luxury of a shower 😂 Ended up in tears over how tired I am. The constant visitors and even the lovely cards/gifts are stressing me out trying to keep track of who has given us what to remember to thank everyone. I barely have time to reply to anyone’s messages and the in-laws are being quite overbearing wanting updates every 2 seconds on how he slept the night before etc, between visits for hours on end where they do nothing to help. I absolutely love Freddie to pieces and still just feel so grateful he’s here but it’s everything else that’s getting to me and I’m being way more sensitive than usual 😭

@lucyrp Oh My God she's soo cute and a beautiful name too. Congratulations my darling x

@PurplePansy05 thanks darling. How's baby Leo today?x

@Jessicapebbles Ebony is gorg! I've also saved your friend as a seller to follow on Etsy. Thanks x

@sarah13xx I had my first wobble today too. Broke down crying as I wanted to heat something and needed to wash the pot first. Just went on about how am exclusively breast feeding baby all day and DH can't even wash the pot for me! 🤣🤦🏽‍♀️. Like you am absolutely grateful for Arya-Nyah but just need a better routine/support. I miss my mum terribly as well! X

Leo is well, thanks all He had plenty of milk today and he's been his usual bright, happy self. We went for two half an hour walks as well. I had a cry in the shower just to let go of all the stress and I'm better too. We'll be watching him tonight again just to be safe, but he's clearly better.

@Ava50x So sorry it's brought back such terrible memories, this must have been so scary for you . xx

Evelyn still hasn't fed from my breast and is nearly 24 hours old. She's had nothing more than a few drops of colostrum from a teaspoon 😥

@Whatshouldbemyusername glad it’s not just me 🙈 I think the tiredness and relentlessness of just doing the same things over and over very quickly get to you! I thought he was going to be a nightmare to go down tonight with the heat. I’m really trying to get him into having a last feed before 11pm then only doing one night time feed at 3am and just getting up when my partner gets up for work to do the next one. So far it hasn’t worked and my timings are all off every night because he takes so many feeds before bed. So far so good tonight, he’s asleep for 11 and should hopefully sleep til 3ish 🤞🏼 Funnily enough the last feed of the night was going to be my partners job.. yet guess who’s been asleep since 10 🤷🏼‍♀️😂 think I’ve drawn the short straw here! Hopefully a decent nights sleep tonight and I’ll wake up a new me

@lucyrp Can you get one of the midwives to help? Do they have a lactation consultant available? Getting them latched on is such a faff to start with, I'd kind of assumed I'd find it easy having breastfed before but I'd forgotten how different it is with a newborn. Hope you get some assistance soon!

@afictionado just had a midwife out to me trying to help but everything is right she just won't latch so I have to express onto a teaspoon for her to drink every few hours😥

@sarah13xx oh bless you. Hope you get some sleep. Am doing the night shift till 4:30 am and then DH will do 6 hours. I've expressed earlier so that should help. Am gonna do a feed at 3:45 so that should keep her for a few hours too. I've just started watching the breakfast club so can stay awake and watch her x

@Daffodil21

Got another winding tip from my FIL. I'll try and explain it!!

One hand behind at the top of their back, one hand under their chin and supporting under their arms, then lift them up so you stretch them out. No patting needed, can rub the back if you want. I'm rubbish at winding him but this worked first time!

Err. Could you explain again? Maybe a diagram?!

@lucyrp Congratulations! Glad you got to stay on MLU in the end.

We also welcomed our (not so) little one yesterday! Chloé was born approx. 14:00, she finally went to sleep at 03:00ish, after I’d been awake for 22 hours. 3.965kg!

Congratulations @HopefulB and welcome Chloe.

I'm finding that between about 3.30am and now Rowan likes to just be awake in her cot. Generally with arms and legs moving making fun baby noises. I try sushing her to sleep etc but she's not having any of it. Sometimes i end up falling asleep when she's like that then feel really guilty when I start awake and she's still awake.

Would you just stay up with her trying to get her asleep? Or would you accept that she's just awake and let her do her own thing?

@Ready2020 I don’t know what the ‘right’ thing is (although gradually learning there are very few right or wrong things in parenting beyond the absolute basics), but if Rowan is perfectly happy just doing her thing in her cot and is safe then I don’t think you need to be awake with her. I think getting your own sleep to take care of yourself is really important (not that I am very good at the self-care stuff myself!).

Ready definitely just sleep next to her! My first baby was like that and it was really helpful. I think it's unusual so I would take advantage of it. I wondered for ages why people said they had to wait for their baby to be asleep to sleep themselves

For anyone with a partner that needs to be told explicitly what support you need, try to break past the feeling that it's rude to ask before you're at breaking point. I think often male and female socialisation is a bit different in that men will ask for help at a fairly non crucial point which gives the helper chance to say something like yep I can do that, but first I need to shower. Whereas women are often likely to wait until you are really really desperate and need the person to drop everything and jump in. But we don't consciously realise this. So your partner will hear your request for help and think that it's non urgent, whereas by the timen you've got to ask it often is. And we tend to get a bit fed up with them not being proactive and trying to guess what help we need before we ask too.

So it can help to have a general conversation where you say look, I'm running on empty, this is really hard, can you be a support person all the time without me asking, and also maybe develop a code or something that says I need help with this thing NOW vs i would like help with this when you're ready. But in general also try to ask when it's non urgent rather than when you really need to.

It's quite useful as well in parenting in general but so much in the early days, for your partner to ask himself "Has my wife been able to do this today?" Before he does anything for himself e.g. make food, get a shower, go out to have some time to himself, have a nap. He should be enabling you to do those things either before himself or just as much as he gets to do them. This doesn't always occur to all men. But when they get to a point of having their sex drive back and they wonder where yours has got to, it's probably there, buried under that pile of things I need to do and unmet needs.

I spend time with Leo stimulating him when he's like this during the day @Ready2020. However if I have something to do I let him get on with it bu himself. I don't interfere during the night unless he is clearly hungry/starts crying.

Huge congratulations @HopefulB and what a gorgeous name 🥰❤ Hope you're both feeling well! xx

@sarah13xx @Daffodil21 thanks ladies 🥰🥰

@PurplePansy05 Evelyn is after OH nan who passed away when he was small and Rose is after my nan who lived until 100! Can't believe how much hair she has but OH has a lot of black hair so she's his little twin 🥰 and yay I finally made it to the list of babies born!

@Magik01 I think it was a mixture of the sweep, 2 half an hour long walks and we also had sex about an hour before the contractions began! She was 8.4 which to me is a perfectly okay weight! I was just panicking incase she was over the 8 and a half mark but looks like I didn't need to worry!

@wimbler @RandomCatGenerator thank you❤️

@Ava50x you'll be soon don't worry! I was technically 40+3 when she was born by my own dates and the midwives said I was probably more correct by the amount of vernix she still had on her !

@Whatshouldbemyusername thanks so much ☺️

@HopefulB I felt like I very nearly didn't make it to the MLU ! By the time I was on the way I had the urge to push already 😳

@BertieBotts definitely makes a lot of sense! Whenever I started crying he was really helpful again and couldn’t have done more for us while he’s been off but it almost feels like he’s back to work and it’s now my baby on my own a bit 🙈 We’re using the baby tracker app so it doesn’t help that I can see how many feeds/nappies I’ve done. I’m sure he’d rather be at home and not at work but I’d love to be able to even take the dog a walk without the baby 😂

@sarah13xx Do you feel you definitely need the app? I'm just asking because in my mind apps whilst useful for tracking, sometimes make you feel shit when not needed. I found that with all tracking apps, Fitbit, MFP, you name it. Baby ones would drive me nuts. IME they create pressure to be perfect and that's just unrealistic. Plus I would get stressed out about remembering to put the info in! Of course I get the benefits and if you feel ok about recording then great, but don't let this get you down. It's a piece of AI that knows the data taught to it by other people. It knows nothing about the reality of parenthood.

@lucyrp That's a lovely tribute. My son's middle names are tributes to his grandads. And Evelyn is my mum's name ❤🥰 xx