Due June 08: less of the hens hatching, more of the cows milking?

[bitofadramaqueen]

Lets hope it's not too long before everyone is hatched and milking season is in full swing!

Glad others are struggling with winding too. I never had to do it with ds, he never had any problems with wind at all, but poor Caitlin had a horrid weekend with tummy ache - her tummy was like a little drum, it was so tight, and she was screaming a lot - honeymoon period over then! I was doing all the bicycling legs, baby massage etc stuff and it was like playing bagpipes with all the squeaky noises coming out of her. Our feeds now go like this:

Baby screams while I locate Infacol, muslin, feeding pillow.
Force nasty orange smelling gunk down unwilling baby.
Clean Infacol off both of us with muslin.
Wave nipple in face of baby while she screams at it, beseeching her to open her mouth wide enough - this can go on for A Very Long Time.
Miss several opportunities for latch owing to persistent cough (oh and have I mentioned my cough-induced muscle strain between ribs yet? really not ideal timing for this)
Shove baby and breast together at top speed during split second opportunity
Baby makes loud gurgling noises as foremilk sprays down her throat
Baby pulls off as foremilk sprays over her, me and room
Hand express excess into muslin while baby screams (can't do this in advance because I can't get a letdown without her help)
Wind baby for the first time of many
Nipple waving dance again
Feed till she starts chewing on my nipple, this means more wind, so I then remove her and start the whole, long winding process again
Eventually, long, loud burp, then more nipple-waving - repeat for, ooh, hours ....

Oh and in between boobs, activity will be varied with an extended nappy change. She has developed a really nasty thrush nappy rash, it's actually bleeding , so is having Canesten on it 3x and Metanium 3x daily, plus nappy free time each change.

I'm normally happy to feed anywhere and everywhere, but I can't really do all of this anywhere except in private! So I feel quite tied to staying home at the moment, which is a pain. Well I say in private, of course this often all takes place while trying to keep marauding toddler off 'Mummy knee' with my third or fourth arm ....

Argh! Can't wait till this all gets easier in a few weeks' time!!! At least she still sleeps a lot ...

respect to all of you with more than one.

napped this morning while isaac was sleeping, managed to leave house!!! to tesco - no parent & child spaces free (filled with white vans???) so parked in relief car park as I cannot manoeuvre travel system in a small space plus needed to remove car seat, had to walk past all Tesco's staff smoking at back door, nearly went up the down travelator, but made it to starbucks for a gorgeous mocha (not had one since September) and some reading time and have now made it home to post about my adventure and feed before having another nap!!

I don't seem to have a problem with winding Isaac, comes off the boob, pop him on my shoulder and he normally burps on the way up or even as he is coming off (although that has resulted in lots of washing of cushion covers!!)

Do you know I feel so happy to be part of this group - it makes life with a newborn so much easier! Everyone's non judgemental , there's always advice to be found, things to laugh at etc...

For the record I last wore a jumpsuit in the early 80's - it wasn't that good a look then and I think I would be sectioned if I attempted it again now!!

Hedgehog - glad you enjoyed your Mocha

SA - I can see why you're not straying too far from home at the moment - sounds tough, but surely things must improve soon.

Essie - shame about the lack of yummy mummies to chat to! A body like in Charlie's angels - I wish!!!

Gorgeous photo UDCake

Poppy - please thank your Dad for the ibuprofen advice, have to say I'm quite rliebed (- now that should say relieved - anyone else forgotten how to type since having their baby?) to hear he's a GP!

Amber - how are things?

Paro - lol at melon comment, a friends daughter was watching Ethan feeding the other day and asked what all the brown was near his face, then he pinged himself off and her face when she saw the size of my nipples was a picture!!

Have any babies been hatched today then? Thinking of all the induction group.

Basil seems to be pretty easy to wind, and poos a fair bi and noisily, DH now knows to wait until he has finished pooing for a while before changing nappy, was not happy changing duvet cover at 4 in the morning as Basil did an impressive squirt with no nnappy on

I agree with everyone on the squirting - I mean, it's incredible the way it travels! I wonder when that ability goes?

God, I spend too much time thinking about poo.

Amber - how did it go today?
Iestyn has slept this afternoon, and I haven't had too much screaming. Mind you, 8-midnight is his time. But that's fine - DH will be here!

Right, calling south Londoners! That's Amber, Penguin, and Upsidedowncake - admittedly the weather is awful today, and it's going to stay this way apparently which makes travelling around a bit trickier (I've forgotten my waterproof jacket...) shall we attempt a coffee? I have UDC's e-mail, but mine is sara . e . roberts at bangor.ac.uk (obviously without the spaces). I know Amber is still in recovery, and Penguin's baby is the youngest, but I'm quite flexible. Thursday's good for me - but not Friday!

Thanks Deb - yes, I am sure it will all settle down soon. I'm holding out for the magic 6 weeks mark or thereabouts, fairly sure that the oversupply will settle down around then, and she should have 'clicked' with the latching on by then too. This is what makes it easier doing this second time round - last time I thought every stage would last forever, at least this time I know this particular difficult bit will be over quickly!

debs thanks for the tip. I'll have a root through stuff tomorrow and see if I can find you some clothes. Not got anything like that, but might have something nice.

essie yep, that sounds like iestyn's getting frustrated with not getting enough milk. Storm seemed to have a v colicky evening tonight so, having cut out the booze am now knocking dairy on the head (can put too much sugar in your breast milk) to see if that helps. Although I think she is just having a bad day after getting off to the vomming start...

sa sorry to hear of your feeding woes. I can only sympathise - this afternoon has been hard, but not that hard...

alcohol just two glassses of wine is enough to cut milk production 20 per cent apparently, so am going to stick to teetotal plan. Booo

UDC - lovely picture - your children are gorgeous.

lol at all the squirty milk/poo posts and Essie so pleased your DH doesn't poo down his leg .

Essie, have sent you an email in rl with my phone number.

Knackered today. I went to go and pick up C from nursery (by car!) and have been exhausted ever since.

Debs, I had a jumpsuit in the 80s as well. But even then I had too much of a tummy to pull it off. What colour was yours?

Thanks Rolf. I'd love to see some pics of yours. xx

OK quick boast before DH steals the laptop back - I have managed tonight to paint my toenails for the first time in 6 months

We have our first visit from the Health Visitor tomorrow - Can anyone prepare me for what to expect have never really been through this before.

Also quick question from a first timer re BF, also gonna post on the bf board,

Is it possible for baby to forget how to latch on? Isaac's feeds have been giving me very sore nipples for the last couple of days, which I never had before so am wondering whether anything has changed with his latch. Is this possible?

Thanks

TGF
Spoke to HV about the alcohol and breastfeeding malarky. She hadn't heard anything about it affecting milk supply unless you drink to excess. In fact health professionals recommend a drink every now and then to help new mums relax.

Spoke to the BF counsellor as well re my milk supply and apparently I am doing all the right things, apart from not necessarily expressing enough during the night as hormones released at this time help with the milk production. If I was BF this would not be a problem. Also explained the problem I was having with getting the teat from his bottles into Luke's mouth with his tongue tie. She suggested getting a second opinion on the tongue tie as she'd never heard about one stretching before and it could cause problems in later life with licking out yoghurt pots, ice creams and kissing (when he's old enough).
Have done some research on tongue tie and BF and found an article by Dr Mervyn Griffiths of Southampton hospital here. So I am taking Luke to the baby clinic tomorrow to get a second opinion to see if he needs this snipping to rectify. I'm then going to give BF another go. Although I have flat or inverted nipples, it's not impossible to BF with these.
Has anyone else had experience of tongue tie?

Debs your post about the romper suit and jumpsuit has had me in stitches, and whoever (sorry can't remember) gave their scenario of feeding with the infacol and the milk spraying whilst having a screaming child.
sophie, love the debarcle of having to change the duvet cover at 4am. I haven;t made it to bed yet since the birth of Luke. I'm still sleeping on the sofa so I can make sure DH gets a decent night's sleep before the early starts commuting to and from London each day. Oh and tomorrow he's off to Halesowen for a change of scenery!
Oh well, better wake Luke for his next feed.

hedgehog

My HV came around this afternoon and did Luke's hearing test as he was so chilled out. A1 OK. She also went through any concerns I had, weighed him, measure his length etc.

Oh and I asked about rubbing Olive Oil into his skin for the flakiness as this was recommended when DS1 was newborn. Aparently this is now a no no for some reason or another. Just baby oil on the bath. God how things have changed in the 4 years since I had DS1!

Libra - interesting about olive oil cos my HV and MW both say use it, HV used to be a MW as well, I did meet a Poole HV on Friday night.

LL my midwife also recommended olive oil, but we only have mega expensive stuff as DH likes to think he has Jamie Oliver genes so have been using baby oil as I have it in the house coz I suffer from really dry skin and use it after my shower before moisturising - If I have time now before my young man wants feeding!!

Just a very quick post, wondering if there was any news from all the inductions happening this weekend.
We have had two days of visitors and it has been too much for us, so much so we had to tell the inlaws not to pop in again this morning (9-12!), going to enjoy a day to ourselves.
On a massively steep learning curve but managed to get a fairly good nights sleep last night. Can't believe he will be a week old tomorrow.
Hopefully will get chance to catch up properly later.

2 more days and then a fortnight of from B&B,

hi all! we've had both computers down, pc died and then macbook died the next day. dh was not a happy bunny but has got one working now at least.

libralady goes to show how no one is in sync because i was still told to use olive oil (with ds and now with dd too). wish they'd make up their minds. also my sis had 2 tongue-tied babies in canada the dr just snips it in the regular clinic and it made all the difference to her. she had bleeding nipples etc because they couldn't get good latch. looking back i think ds had(s) it too but not as severe so we struggled along for 4 months then he tried a bottle and wouldn't go back to breast at all, it was so much easier for him.

systemsaddict sorry to hear about your problems breastfeeding. hope you're able to stick with it, i had loads of problems with ds and it was so frustrating. have you tried massaging your breasts in circles towards the nipple when expressing? i couldn't express at all until i visited my sister and she showed me how to do it and suddenly i was getting 5oz!

Questions for all those with toddlers... how are you finding it?? ds was a nightmare the first couple weeks, acting out constantly, not sleeping (from 730p to 7a straight through usually to 9p to 5.30 or 6a and waking up several times. he seems to be settling a bit now but he is being such hard work. i find that in order to appease him i basically have to ignore Anwyn. if dh holds her look out - he loses it! he's even gone so far as to ask to hold her himself when daddy was so that he wouldn't be - and then quickly said, Mummy take it (her). manipulative little thing!!

Morning everyone

Ktpie, know what you mean about visitors. I can manage about one set a day at the moment!

DLMP1, DS is OK with Dorothy so far, but he is at nursery four days a week, and has his grandparents around who are spoiling him rotten! But he is enjoying his increase in status, and delights in pointing out that he can eat strawberries, chocolate cake, melon, cheese etc ad infinitum and rather boringly, whereas Dorothy can only have milk. Also enjoys listing all the other things that he can do and she can't, like playing with fire engines and trucks. I'm sure that once his grandparents go next week , he'll start playing up good and proper.

Sophie, you must be really looking forward to you holiday. I don't know how you and Debs do it!

My MW also recommended olive oil. My father suggested garlic and a little rosemary as well.

Morning all, a quick post before showering. And a quick question...

Iestyn (it's all about him, little angel!) settled quite well last night - DH decided to settle him in his moses basket upstairs with a monitor, with us downstairs. Strange, but it did seem to work! Perhaps he is overstimulated? He was really good for me yesterday, and again, just me - so no distractions etc.

It's a feeding question (it's all about feeding here too!). Iestyn is usually on 3-hour gaps in the nights, with the first feed sometimes being 4-5 hours. But in the day...it's 4 hours and sometimes more. Now, it's all manageable I suppose, but anyone got any suggestions how we switch day for night? I'm willing to accept it's not possible, but it would be useful...

Just checking to see if we have any new babes but no news yet .

UDcake - mine was turquoise!!

Dylan - DD has been Ok but again she has her routine which is nursery every morning. We are also lucky as we both run the B&B and so there is always one of us to do things with her in the afternoon.

Essie - I'm with you on the day/night feeding patterns! Although we found that turning up the heat in our room made Fraser sleep for 6 miraculous hours last night (it's cold in Aberdeen). I don't expect this to continue since he was up every 2-3 hours the night before.

My DS1 is still being spoiled by grandparents so I'm not sure how he'll be after that. He's still going to be in nursery 3 afternoons a week though so I'm hoping that will help. He is waking more at night though since Fraser was born...

i'm really wishing we would have started him in nursery before she arrived. i don't want to do it now in case he then thinks we're trying to get rid of him because of her. but when we move later this year we will def start him in some sort of nursery as soon as we settle in. he's so used to just me and him, then daddy for evenings and weekends, all attention/eyes on him. it's a rough ride!

DM - DD1 had a few days of being v clingy but is much better now. She and DH have really bonded since Thea came along. She's tried to hit Thea a few times but I think it's because she's 2 rather than baby-related, iyswim