August 2021 Babies - Final evictions and the fourth trimester

[BertieBotts]

Time for a new thread! :)

29 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 💙
@MrsB2019x - Welcome to the world, baby Ella💖
@Biscuitcat - Welcome to the world, baby Rowan 💙
@Whatshouldbemyusername - Welcome to the world, baby Arya-Nyah 💖
@notinthestarsigns - Welcome to the world, baby Erin 💖
@Aaaaa1519 - Welcome to the world, baby Anum 💖
@Angelesque - Welcome to the world, baby Isaac 💙
@Millymay13 - Welcome to the world, baby Ethan Benjamin 💙
@WolfMother326 - Welcome to the world, baby Alasdair William 💙
@BertieBotts - Welcome to the world, baby Alexander 💙
@RandomCatGenerator - Welcome to the world, baby Solomon 💙
@lucyrp - Welcome to the world, baby Evelyn Rose 💖
@HopefulB - Welcome to the world, baby Chloé 💖
@Mmr224 - Welcome to the world, baby Alasdair 💙
@Smallbean27 - Welcome to the world, baby boy 💙
@Fran919 - Welcome to the world, baby girl 💖
@Caz1226 - Welcome to the world, baby Dougie 💙
@Ava50x - Welcome to the world, baby boy 💙
@dirtyfries - Welcome to the world, baby Frankie! 💖

Counting down until till they welcome their munchkins:

@Dia12 - EDD 8 August, Girl 💖
@livingwithbees - EDD 16 August, surprise 💛
@Sheisfee - EDD 19 August, Girl 💖
@Alittlexmasmagic - EDD 22 August, surprise 💛
@LottSE20 - EDD 22 August, surprise 💛
@ame88 - EDD 28 August, Girl 💖

How are you all managing to introduce a routine around all the various appointments and visitors? I have at least 1-2 health appointments every week pretty much, his sensory class and visitors (usually weekend). Plus my own appointments. We usually ask visitors to come in the morning which is besr time for him, but the rest just depends on availability so we have to work around that. Some appointments would just never fit in with a strict schedule of feeding/naps. I'm genuinely baffled how you're managing this? I must be missing the trick somewhere?? xx

@PurplePansy05 no routine here or at least not a strict one. We just go with the flow, she naps when she's tired. She feeds on demand. If she is feeding constantly and I can tell it's more she is tired not hungry we tend to go for a walk or even just into the pram in the living room.
Ds is in school 1130-2 every day. It pretty much messes up any chance of a proper routine. There are days we aren't out of the bedroom until 1030. Depending on our night sleep other days we might be up by 9. We wind down in the evening around 7 or so and then feed on Sophia and doze in the living room before bed round 10/11. Her night sleep is much better she feeds then goes into moses basket sleepy and awake (I truly believed there was no such thing with ds it's most definitely just luck of the draw I think) and goes over herself.

Week 2 and ds or dh has brought the cold home from school - sore head, sore throat, blocked nose it's not the most pleasant but from the huffing and sighing of dh all night long you'd have sworn he was dying.

@Smurf123 I can imagine juggling two DCs is a logistical challenge, just to get through every day! We just have the better mornings/lots of cuddles and feeding afternoons/bath at 6pm and then winding down, more feeding etc. DS is asleep by 11pm and wakes up once for a feed, then up in the morning. I squeeze in various activities, walks, visitors (depending on the day, not to overload us) and sensory stuff when he's awake. But of course this is a very general routine, it's just how he seems to work and we go along. Appointments definitely affect this. I can't get my head around introducing rigid napping and feeding routine during the day?? xx

Oh and of course your DH is dying, you should have learnt by now @Smurf123 you could be on your last legs but you'd still crack on, whereas men, well... on a serious note, I hope you all feel better soon xx

I still really don’t have a routine yet, just trying to get the lunchtime nap started. I don’t have any other children or places to be so it’s definitely easier 🙈 Find it hard with the visitors though, especially since some expect him to be up and providing some sort of entertainment when they’re there. We have the in laws coming this weekend bang on when he’ll be having his lunch time nap likely and they’ll no doubt poke at him and try to wake him up 🤦🏼‍♀️ But I’m stopping worrying about him being awake if they come. If he’s asleep they’ll be getting told to leave him. Not dealing with a screaming baby all day every time after they leave 🙈

I sat on my phone until half 12 or something last night, I really wasn’t tired. Freddie’s woke up at 8 which would be a completely reasonable time to get up and start the day but feel like I’ve only had a few hours sleep 🙄

@PurplePansy05 the only routine we have is the evening one. We do bath at 6, then feed then he goes to bed. We then wake him at 10-10.15 for a feed when we go to bed. That works well at the moment. Dh and I even went out to dinner last night for our anniversary on our own which was amazing to do!

Just had his vaccinations, the cry breaks my heart but a quick cuddle and he was all fine. Have given him his calpol and sat in a cafe having a feed.

Had him weighed for the first time since day 14 and he’s dropped form 75th percentile to between 25&50. Doctor didn’t seem concerned though.

She also said the cause of my scary bleeding the other night was because my stitches weren’t quite healed and have split. Thankfully it didn’t hurt at all but so annoyed that at 8 weeks it’s not healed and I didn’t even realise! Also had the chat about contraception so need to decide what I’m going to do about that

@PurplePansy05 we don't have a routine at all really - at night he usually has a feed at 10/10:30, 2-ish and 5-ish, but even that changes if he goes to sleep at a different time than normal. My plan is to basically let him decide his own routine and we'll figure things out around that (though hearing about these amazing babies sleeping through is making me very jealous!)

The health visitor weighed him yesterday - he's just an ounce shy of 13lb!! No wonder my arm is starting to get sore from hefting him around...

No routine here either, although I'm starting to find some patterns - he wants to be down for the night or at least not moved about too much from about 9pm. We often have a nap from 3.30 until 5ish. Although that clashes with kindergarten pick up so may have to change that at least from my perspective. We're getting some longer stretches where he tolerates not being permanently attached. Evenings (6-8ish) are still fussy. Six week baby check is tomorrow. Mine is in a couple of weeks.

Smurf :o How very dare you be ill on a Wednesday! God forbid! (This is like pharmacies in Germany being closed on Saturday afternoons - because nobody has a hangover after 12 or anything!)

Can I ask a poo question?

Generally most of his nappies are dirty, but over the last few days there's been huge gaps between (12 hour kind of gaps) and it's also really watery.

It times with us stopping using pre-made formula and making it up ourselves, so I'm going to switch back to the pre-made just to check see if that helps.

He's pretty much exclusively formula fed. Is this normal and the timing just happens to coincide?

Also he's only really going during a nappy change, so when I lift his legs up. He went just now but I held his legs up and it took a few minutes for him to go

@Daffodil21 are you worried about the time between poos? Ds has only been going every 3-4 days at the moment but dr wasn’t concerned at all when I mentioned it today and said they can go up to 10-14 days sometimes! Dd was the same. Ds is bf so I don’t know about ff though.

It’s probably just the position he’s in when you change him that gets it out! That’s totally normal, it’s what we do when we try to encourage the farts and poos - I learnt it at baby massage with dd!

Seriously pissed off just now. DD didn't sleep at all from 10 am until I finally her to sleep at 4pm on my boob. I was stuck on the sofa with DD on me. OH was upstairs. I was stuck with fecking cats doing my head in with constant meowing for dinner and throwing up of grass. All OH had to do was come down and feed the cats to shut them the hell up but he thought I had gone out! It would be very fecking obvious if I had gone out. He just didn't want to deal with it. I got 1 and hours sleep last night and I'm raging! They ended up waking DD up of course as milo can be extremely loud. How OH couldn't hear any of this is beyond me.

We had such a bad night last night that I really wanted DD to get as much sleep today to avoid a similar night but it's not looking good.

@wimbler slightly about the times but more about the consistency? It's very watery.

@Ready2020 wow. How can he not feel bad about that?! Totally not on. I hope he's pulling his weight now x

@Daffodil21 speak to hv or go if you are worried but personally I wouldn’t be worried about the timings. I wish ds would go every 12 hours. After 4 days the poos are quite something! i realise that’s not too reassuring but trust your instinct on this. If you’re worried, there’s no harm in speaking to someone :)

@wimbler ha I asked on here because I trust you ladies more than I trust my HV after her plain incorrect info the other day!

I'm not sure if I'm worried or not..! Not yet I don't think as he does seem ok in himself. Just wondering if I should be I guess!

Going for a swim this evening. First one since before birth. I'm really really hoping it hurts my back because honestly I need to find something that helps!!

@Daffodil21 your experience and approach seems similar to mine so far in lots of other ways, and watery poos days apart would be something I would definitely want to check out. DS sometimes goes a day without but not more than one day; and the consistency is definitely not watery, it’s sort of…Mr Whippy consistency when it comes out? So worth asking about for sure, IMO.

@RandomCatGenerator it's not days, it's more like 12 hours is so, but it's different to usual. I've asked my friend who is a GP so I'll see what she says. Googling says it could be constipation or it could be that he's starting to digest things better? Not sure

@Daffodil21 Are you ok to use the pool after CS? Genuine question, I don't actually know? xx

@wimbler Wow, 8 weeks! That's crazy it's not healed. Have you not had any symptoms of it not being fully healed yet?

Can I ask you as well about Calpol, did you give it to him straight after the vaccinations as a precaution? I am guessing dosage is as per the packaging from 8 weeks?

How much was the weight loss as well?

Sorry for so many questions, DS's vaccinations are coming up next week and I'm trying to think what to prepare us for!

No poo here today either! xx

@PurplePansy05 she said I was at my 6 week check so I hope so... I'll take it easy though and I'm certainly not going to push myself. My back is absolute agony and I really need to find a solution because it's genuinely ruining the baby experience for me. I mentioned it at my 6 week app and she just said to make sure my back muscles are strong by walking and swimming (luckily the two things I enjoy anyway). I didn't actually tell her how bad it is though which I regret now!

I'll let you know how I get on in the pool. Will be wearing my maternity swim suits for a fair while!

@Daffodil21 Enjoy! It should help your back big time. Very jealous! Still on antibiotics here and I'll have to wait for my sea swims and body boarding till next year. Fingers crossed DS will join me one day too 😊 xx

@Daffodil21 he’s formula fed too and for a while it was bang on every 24 hours he’d have a dirty nap. It always fell in the afternoon too so it was quite handy not having to change dirty nappies in the night ever 😂 It can occasionally be watery too but just the odd day. He went through a phase of dirtying it again every time as I was in the middle of changing it, that wasn’t pleasant 🙈 We only use the powder though, we tried the premade stuff early on and it made him really sick. The health visitor said he might tolerate it better when he’s a bit older though so for now I’m just having to make up bottles on the go or take them made in the bag.

*nappy even

Very happy to report the swim was lovely. It didn't pull on my scar at all. I know I am incredibly lucky to have recovered how I have, so I didn't push it at all and just did the pathetic 10 lengths I was doing while I was pregnant. Back was ok during the swim but painful again now, I guess it will take time but I think swimming will help. I'm tempted to book an appointment with the acupuncturist I saw while ttc as she is also an osteopath and spotted that I have undiagnosed scoliosis. Just conscious of spending money atm as I quit my job while I was pregnant thanks to my arse of a boss, and took maternity leave stupidly early so I don't have that safety net to fall back on come March when SMP runs out. No regrets though!! I might still book an appointment though, some things are too important not to.

@sarah13xx this is good to know, thank you. I'll keep an eye in the next few days!