Feb Babies - Come on Down!

[tyaca]

'ere we go, guys!

Sorry I haven't posted in days, I've been too busy enjoying my gorgeous new baby . Have uploaded some photos to my profile which you will have to look at if you want to see DS4's name

Ok, quick birth story - went to bed early on Friday night, woke up in the middle of the night with sporadic contractions, they weren't getting any closer together, were painful though. Called midwife who arrived a bit before 8, ctx still 7-8 mins apart so I was in tears as I thought I had hours to go and it bloody hurt! Then had one last toilet trip before getting in the pool - hah! I got as far as stripping off and standing by the pool thinking "I really have to leap in NOW" - then my waters broke, and his head came out in one push and his body with the next! So everyone made me a nest of duvets and cushions and I lay down to snuggle with the baby. Waited 45 minutes for the placenta (no injection), almost no blood loss (yah boo sucks to the community midwife who told me I might bleed to death at home!). And it was so lovely having all my children around straight away - we had a really great family day - had the fire burning, champagne, the kids made a birthday cake and in the afternoon they buried the placenta under DD's daffodil which she'd brought home from school the day before!

DS4 is just lovely, his feeding wasn't great for the first couple of days but is sorted now - just goes to show that breastfeeding has to be learnt by both mother and baby, I would have thought I was experienced enough (8 years or so!) but if the baby doesn't play along it can be a bit of a challenge. Oh, he was 8lb - exactly the same as DD was.

Can't believe how many babies have turned up in the last week - congratulations to all new mums and hope you're all enjoying your babies. Will post more next week when the kids have gone back to school.

xx

Sally, are you going to have a nice curry for dinner tonight, with fresh pineapple for dessert?
Leesmum, sis will help look after DD whilst I'm in hospital - SUCH a load of my mind. I'm going to spoil my sis for a day or two when she arrives by way of thanks...

another quick birth Slacker - sounds like a lovely family experience! Cute pics and great name too!

hope things get going naturally for you Sally, if not at least you know is almost here!

slept really well but do find by the time I've showered and dressed all I want to do is sit down again! am trying to plan lots of things to do today so as to avoid the moping overdue moods I sucumb to in the afternoons... just need the energy to get through it all! treating myself to a trip to Dobbies... at least I can walk around in the warm and raid there food hall for goodies!

wonder if we'll get any more babies today???
x

Wow, such a quick birth Slacker! I do like the inspiration here of lots of quick births...

Congrats to mymissus, loobyt and others if I have forgotten them.

Hope things start for you soon, Sally.

I feel for those going overdue. I'm starting to feel a little stir crazy and I'm still a week off due date. I feel a little disgruntled because all and sundry have been telling me that I'm going to be early (family history, midwives cos babe engaged early, etc!) but no, not as yet. Babe is obviously very comfy in there with no exit strategy in mind just yet!

hi violeta, nice to hear from you, was wondering where you'd got to. i'm just off a week to go now and it does make you sympathise with those overdue.

ty for birth story slacker and pics slacker. *** is a lovely name. brings to mind dexter - which i always liked (hmmm.... spike from the kids show press gang anyone?) then there was that darn TV show. your birth sounds great, and so nice to make it such a family do, tho' confess i am at the champagne.

egg - ty for notes tip off. i am 2/5th engaged, darn, i thought by loads engaged, i was... like 4/5th or 5/5th ... (DH getting into unfunny dad mode already. Tyaca: "oooh, she's engaging," DH:" and vivavcious" )

widget, yeah, i know what you mean about not slumping. its v hard. last night i slept from 9pm til 5am. Laid down to read book at half eight and just got another 3 hours in .... intrgued to know what dobbies is... i'm tempted to reward myself with a trip to bakery section of sainsburys if i can get all the darn tidying done. there is so much to do... despite big clean up for HV visit this week. also could earn myself ten thousand brownie points if i did DH's shirts ready for after half term. hmmmm... will put them in wash and see how i feel later.

Hi tyaca, I may be completely wrong but I think you're further on than you think cos they work the fifths out backwards. When they say 2/5 engaged, they actually mean that they can feel 2/5 of the baby's head actually meaning that 3/5 of the baby's head has moved down into the pelvis. All in all, a very good sign, I would say! (I hope I'm right in this!)

Aaargh, struggling with my sling this morning - I can't remember what slings everyone said they were using! Can anyone point me in the right direction as I'm struggling with my fleece coory!

Hello everyone.

Congratulations for all the new arrivals.

Slacker - thanks for the birth story, so positive! Lovely chice of name for your DS.

Violeta/tyaca - midwives can write '2/5 engaged', which means 2/5 of head in pelvis, OR '2/5 palpable', meaning they can still feel 2/5, so 3/5 in pelvis. Very confusing, especially if you don't know which way round they've done it.

Sorry Lucy, I haven't decided which sling to buy, but probably a freedom padded sling (for sale through ebay, just do a search). I thought the coory was supposed to be very easy to use because you don't need to adjust it? It's obviously not so simple in reality. Have you tried asking the people you bought it from for help? I hope you find a solution one way or another.

Egg - I am amazed every day at your coping abilities, especially at times when you have 3 screaming children yet are still managing to post on here! You are such an insiration!

When I bought my coory I was smaller
Now I'm larger I just can't get it working properly for me! It worked a treat when I was smaller and Beth was too.
I've e-mailed freedom slings and just bought a freedom sling in pink on their advice.
Now I'm waiting in on the health visitor and struggling with my real nappies as Izzy's cord stump is getting irritated by my wraps It keeps leaking goo which my midwife assured me is normal, I don't want to make it worse with my lovely cloth nappies (which won't fit for much longer)
Beth's stump healed super fast so I'm really stuck on how long it will take to heal
I'm going to ask my lovely HV and see what she thinks

Congrats to mymissus - another boy - wow!

as usual no time for a proper read and post but on DUMMIES - current thinking is that they help prevent cotdeath and that you should put baby down for nap/sleep with dummy (every time not just at night) so despite not wanting to give one to toby he has one anyway - i did use them for other two but hadn't needed to this time. If you're breast feeding you should introduce dummy after a month so that you get bf sorted first. Hope this is of use.

Lucy - DD's tummy button is still leaking goo a bit . I think, well presume, it is connected to the hernia but I have to clean it with cooled boiled water all the time and it is very tedious. It is almost healed but if I don't clean it for half a day I notice the green appearing again.

Thank you all for thinking I am coping amazingly! Got a bit peed off earlier as I went for my lie down when DS1 went for his nap and then both babies woke up. So have missed my rest today after a crappy night, but at least it is Friday. Don't forget I have HELP here from 10am to 2:30pm normally (she left early today) hence it is easier to cope with the shit times knowing that someone is coming to help in a few hours... after Easter you will see a change in me!

Got LOADS of gunk out of DD's nose just now with the nasal thing, it is so satisfying. Hope you can't overuse these things . Will be DS2's turn shortly before I feed him.

Is anyone keeping tabs on the boy/girl count?!

Have finally found some sort of pattern to the nights - 2 hours sleep followed by 1 hour of feeding, repeat until dawn . Not exactly restful but at least fairly predictable which keeps me this side of sane (just!)
Tis me that has dh sleeping in another room which means that at least one of us functions during the day. Part of me envies the fact that he has a newborn but hasn't lost an hour's sleep but then again, there is no point in taking him hostage, we may as well share the load and he takes the strain of ds1 during the day. That said, he will be back at work full time next week so I will be flying solo then....

I also have DH in a different room... but he is not here in the day to help out . He usually averages about 7hrs a night sleep. I usually average about 4 . But I LOVE COFFEE.

DS2 now ready for feed so off to suck the life out of his nostrils first .

tyaca - dobbies is a garden centre that just does lovely things... more looking than buying but the part bake crossoints are to die for!!!

wonder how Sally is getting on?

have managed to avoid feeling down this afternoon by watching The Wedding Date and making pear and chocolate crumble for tea DH home early and suggested we go for a walk so am off to enjoy the fading daylight...

maybe it'll start something, want babe to be born tomorrow as they'll be a maths wizz...
16/02/08 (16 divded by 2 equals 8!!!)

egg - I think I'll have to get a nasal thingy (what is yours called?) - sounds sooooo satisfying! I remember fishing gunk out of DS' nostrils with my little finger nail .

beansprout - glad at least one of you is getting some sleep. There will be no escape for my DH. With Ds, he did more of the night duties than I did, despite me exclusively breastfeeding. He would bring DS to me, then wind & settle him (took at least an hour to get him back to sleep after each feed). I can NOT deal with sleep deprivation as well as he can, so he ended up doing all the hard work, then going to work every day too. Even now, he still gets up to see to DS during the night if need be. He is one in a million .

widget - 16.02.08 sounds good to me too. Quite frankly though, now Valentine's Day has passed, any date will do! (2 days over and counting...)

My nasally thing is by Nuk but my doula got it at a trade fair and she said this particular one is not available in England, I know they sell them in Boots though.

Poor DS2, he seems to very constipated, hence not sleeping and spending much of night and day crying. He managed some poo just now but it is streaked with green and so I have to keep and eye on him. Have been giving him water here and there but think he obviously needs a bit more. He seems a bit happier after his poo.

I think I am losing it today. It got to 5pm and I realised I hadn't even thought about supper for DS1, and have NOTHING to give him (except some leftover chilli from last night that he refused), so he is eating a marmite sandwich .

16/02/08 sounds a great date to me! My lot are 10/01/08 and 20/02/06. I like the fact that both the date and month of each birthday is the same two digits (if that makes sense), ignoring the years of course. Am I making ANY sense??????? Bring on the booze is what I say (I make a rule that i have to wait til 7pm).

Think DS1 is trying for a poo now, no idea when he last managed one, I don't remember one since Tuesday unless he sneaked one out at nursery.

Ah, DS2 crying again . I hope this is not the shape of things to come.

today i've had fruit and granola, 2 packets of crisps, two slices of banana cake and three bagels with marmite and jam. what next? still no baby or even a sign...

princessllama - hope your finger is recovered after the terrible cat savaging. on that note, way to go mymissus - our cat is nicknamed digby and we love him very much. i thought it was sad that nancy mitford didn't find someone to adore her - she always played second fiddle in the game of love.

sally - hope your baby comes soon - my midwife is about 12 as well, and does not have children - i thought you had to have been through it to qualify? then again, I also saw a male midwife for one appt. and he definitely hadn't been through it.

going to try homeopathic caullophylum to bring on labour. Clary sage has not worked and i'm too whalelike for sex

Egg - I know what you are trying to say about dates. next date LO is allowed to appear will be the 18th as I have a thing for even numbers! actually thats not true - depseration may win out! don't listen to mummy widget!

I also have to say Mitford that that sounds like a pretty healthy food list (looks at scone with jam in hand, with quite a lot of butter and feels slightly guilty!)

also can I add its friggin freezing out!

widget when I was due with DS1 (he was due on 22 Feb 2006) I was DESPERATE for him to come on 18 Feb. I was giving birth at Chelsea and Westminster and was determined that a) it would be a weekend so DH was home and b) Chelsea would not be playing at home as it would mean lots of traffic, so I worked out that 18 Feb was perfect. Went into labour on 19 Feb but DS was born just into 20 Feb.

Can't believe my little boy is NEARLY TWO .

DS2 keeps yelping every 2 mins. Picked him up (again) got THREE huge burps out of him. Put him back in bed, he cries again. Gah.

My diet has been appalling today. Three cups of coffee, one cup of tea, one rich tea finger, two pieces of choc, two McDonalds cheeseburgers and a vanilla milkshake (I NEVER normally eat McDs tho...), three slices of Soreen malt loaf (no butter but only cos I was in a rush). Having lamb steak, roast pots, green beans, mushrooms and TRIFLE for supper though .

I bought a nasal sucker at Boots. not by Nuk, but threw away the packaging, so I don't know who made it.

I can't stand the cold! Making my nipples hurt more.

I feel a bit better after sleeping all morning. Had to get up to do DS1s lunch. Now I'm feeling a flu-y again. Surprised baby isn't sick too!

Shoved a roast chicken in the oven so DS1 and dh can fend for themselves for dinner (that and leftovers from yesterday on counter buffet style). I'm off to bed again. Me, I have no appetite...hopefully doesn't affect my supply!

Hi everyone.

I've not had much time to come on the net this week but have been logging on and trying to keep up with all your news. Congratulations to those of you who now have their lo's. I hope those of you who are overdue don't have long to wait and I'm sending good labour vibes to all the pregnant ladies!

I've had a 'challenging' few days. DS3 spent the whole of Weds, Thurs and this morning crying pretty much the whole time (except when he was attached to my boob). Luckily he was ok during the night so at least got a bit of sleep. During the day its been impossible to put him down and he's been really windy. Advised by midwife to introduce him to infacol at the tender age of 2 days and at lunchtime today it seems to have kicked in. I feel like someone has swapped my baby - contented little boy asleep in the pram now and I have been able to play with ds1 and ds2 this afternoon whilst he's slept rather than pacing/feeding ds3. Hopefully this will continue! BF is going ok - nipples are sore but not cracked and it's bearable so far so fingers crossed.

The boys are loving having their baby brother here although ds2 says ds3 is not nice when he poohs!

Take care everyone

ah feck, had a couple of period pain pully twinges and just remembered i am a complete bloody woose. i have the worlds lowest pain threshold, why am i even thinking of doing this... esp the natural way.... i once fainted from period pains, FGS.

we got a lovely mamas and papas cot second hand and my mum bought us loads of baby linen. i am dying to make up her bed, but am concerned i shouldnt cause prob will have to get a new mattress, right? is that a fixed rule?

maybe i should make up bed just cause really want to and then get off arse and but matress tomo and do it all again.

mymissus, i lived next door to a little boy called Digby. bite the bullet and do it.