June babies are starting to pop, who will be the last to pop?

[GibberingGinger]

Final thread of the June 2010 antenatal group. We will all have popped in the next 1000 messages. See you in post natal soon!

Just popping on quickly to answer the expressing questions as MIL and SIL arriving in 20 mins for lunch and I'm so not ready (or dressed!!)

I express straight after the morning (7.30-ish) feed as I find thats when I usually have most milk in the day. It makes things a bit tricky for DH, as he has to dress DS, DD1 and then take all 3 kids down to the kitchen for breakfast, but it only takes me 10-15 mins to express approx 150-200ml. I find I've always got plenty of milk by the time I feed again at 10/10.30am - if anything, I'm usually overfull first thing in the day, even if I fed at 5am, so its quite a relief to get it out, and the rest of the day I self-regulate fine I did try expressing at 9pm instead with DS and found that I could never produce enough milk and it took a lot longer...and I would get quite stressed as I would be worrying about it, too. Better to express in the morning and be going to bed at 9pm if you're not doing the 11pm feed !! And yes, I am uncomfortable by the 3/4/5am feed, but its not terrible....but the side I don't feed from at that time is the side that tends to be mahoosive in the morning - hence the expressing

Hope that helps?

Mia is taking the bottle ok-ish - she'll have about 60ml or so, then seems to get a bit confused about the teat not being a nipple. DH has sensibly decided to stop feeding her whenever she hits that point, so it isn't affecting her latch at the next feed at all. Although its a small feed, she's quite happily going from 11-5am at the moment, so it seems to be enough of a top-up to keep her going for now. Am sure it won't last though

Hi there - am woefully behind on thread but need some advice please.

I think it was you Greensnail who mentioned you used the finger up the back passage trick to relieve constipation in your LO?
DT2 is definitely struggling to poo in the last few days. He hadn't been for over 48 hours, and was clearly very uncomfortable. This has meant his feeding has been off too.
My MIL, who happened to be visiting, said that in her day, they advised you put vaseline onto your little finger, insert and wiggle a little. Ordinarily I would take anything my MIL says with a large pinch of salt, however I seemed to remember someone onthe thread (sure it was you greensnail) offering the same advice?

Anyhow, i did just that, and the most humongous succession of poo followed. Job done.
However another 48 hours passed and no more poo, so I found myself doing this again today, and again a couple of poos followed.

So now i'm concerned that DT2 can't poo without my doing this. How long is too long for a newborn to go without pooing? I never had this problem with DD or with DT1 - all are BF babies so not sure what the issue is.

DH asked GP who advised to give him cooled boiled water. Not sure about this at all - surely he should be taking more milk rather than water?

Oh dear - any advice greatly appreciated.

Hi MM, yes it was me with the non-pooing baby. I used a cotton bud rather than my finger, but same thing really. He sounds very much like Alice. I was also getting worried that she was going to get to the point that she wouldn't be able to poo without me doing this, but actually it seemed to stop working for us so we've not done it for a while.

She's still pooing infrequently (her record so far is 9 days without a poo!) but is getting much less upset about it, and it no longer seems to affect her feeding like it did.

Everyone keeps telling me so long as she's not too distressed, and that poos are normal when she does go then its nothing to worry about. I think i'm slowly getting better at not obsessing over her bowels (I'm a nurse and we have a tendency to obsess over poo at the best of times anyway ). No one's been able to tell me how long exactly is too long though.

I was also told to try water by GP (after HV told her not to advise fruit juice) which I was sceptical aboout too. She's clearly not dehydrated but eventually gave her a little when I got to the point where I thought I'd have to take her back to the docs and wanted to be able to say I'd tried it, otherwise they'd just say the same again. She took a little bit and her next nappy seemed wetter than usual but it had no noticeable effect on her bowels.

Hope things start improving for him soon. Hope my typing makes sense - am feeding in an odd position so can't really see what i'm doing!

Reading about non-pooing babies I'm actually quite envious! (As long as they're not too uncomfortable of course) Emma seems to poo ALL the time. If she cries too hard, she poos, sometimes if she coughs she poos. Should I be worried? It's just like yellow water but not hideous smelling or anything. Sorry if TMI. I often seem to be changing her 4 times in a half hour period, then not for a few hours, then another bout of nappies etc etc. We can get through more than a dozen in 24 hours. Does this sound wrong to you. My HV just sort of shrugged.

Ok, change of subject.

Congratulations elena!

LaT - You must be v. relieved re. scan.

CSWS - Fingers crossed that the murmur resolves itself - have heard they often do.

GG - Sorry to hear about the cleft palate. Hope they can fix it without too much problem. Emma has done a bit of vomiting out of her nose - feel I should have a proper look inside her mouth now.

Filly - I did waste quite a lot of time working out the average weights... particularly after realising that as pounds and ounces aren't metric, I would first have to convert each baby's weight to ounces. I should really find better things to do.

madamefreckle - remind me if you've said anything about her being colicky or unsettled at all as well will you? I can't keep track of who's said what! But if she is, then that combined with her very frequent pooing would make me start to wonder about milk intolerance. DD ended up with the most horrendous nappy rash that wouldn't clear because she pooed so much due to this.

MM - rather than give water in between feeds, could you try offering the breast again, but just for a smaller feed, so that he is getting just a drink from it? That might help to get things moving along a bit quicker.

We really should move to post-natal now. Does anyone care about / have a suggestion for a thread title?

Dont know if this is useful or not but a spell in the vibrating chair helps Fergus to pump when he is struggling with it. Also I have been giving him probiotics this week and they seem to be helping him poo more easily, i have given him them at different times and he tends to poo lots for about 12 hour period after that. Also if he is really struggling I give him a bit extra milk as CSWS says and that sometimes help him push it out. Dont know if thats of any help.

Sorry CSWS I can never think of a title.

No experience of slow pooing babies, but I have heard that HV's don't worry unless it is more than a week. Sorry I know this doesn't help.
madamfeckle I'm more with you in that James can take ages to get it all out, if I've noticed he's done a poo I leave it 15 minutes before changing him just to make sure he has finished otherwise he just makes a mess of the changing mat!
CSWS hope the heart murmur turns out to be nothing to worry about and the appt comes around quickly.

Not much happening here. Waiting for an appt for James' cleft palate to be assessed, but the specialist in Edinburgh was on holiday last week so hopefully will hear ear;y this week. Oh and douglas has conjunctivitis , will have to phone HV about that tomorrow to see what I can use at his age.

For postnatal how about June10 babies have arrived, now we are all sleep deprived.

Just a quickie - Ginger - squirt breast milk in his eye if you can - best thing for eye infections.

Aaaaaargh - sorry - it's you who had to switch to ff isn't it, so that suggestion is probably useless. GP will be able to prescribe drops though.

Hi there, wanted to mark my place, sorry I haven't been online for ages! I am not sure if I will be able to find the time to read through all the messages but have seen there has been some talk about breast feeding and expressing which I think I will read through being new to all this!

I am finding being a new mum is great and what everyone tells you it will be i.e. a lack of sleep worry when they cry too much and you have done all the checks and then worrying if you think they have slept too long and wondering if they are ill. Luckily Sid is a pretty happy baby, very long putting on a fair bit of weight and very chatty. He's permanently on Infacol which has helped him no end (phew) and I think as he is growing to be so long his insides are lengthening out and settling a bit.

Anyhoo, congratulations to all the lovely new babies and I hope everyone is doing well

CSWS - She is quite colicky/unsettled every evening as well as the v. frequent pooing. Do you think it's worth trying to cut out milk for a week and see if it helps? Would that mean all dairy including live yoghurt? Thanks

thanks for the advice on the constipation. I forgot to mention he is also a rather windy/colicky baby too and the past 3 nights I've been up til around 5am trying to get him to settle. Feeling seriously sleep deprived. Shame as first 2 weeks were relatively easy - now the problems are all kicking in. Hey ho - this soon shall pass.

CSWS sorry to hear about jeremy's heart murmur. What are the implications longer term?
GG again sorry about the cleft palate diagnosis - but at least it's been identified now.

CSWS DT2 had a "weepy" eye in week 1 which I'm pleased to report vanished from breast milk being squirted in his eye. best antiseptic around!

I am praying for some sleep tonight. Ironically, DT2 (windy/constipated) was asleep at 6:45pm without a murmur, and it is DT1 who has been grumbling on and off so far tonight. Oh the joy of twins!

P.S. I spoke to a maternity nurse friend today who recommends warm water with a small amount of brown sugar dissolved in it for constipation. Have tried - it failed.

madamefreckle - it can't hurt to try, but it will need to be 2 weeks, as dairy takes at least 7-10 days to clear from your system completely. It needs to be ALL dairy, so no butter (marg has dairy too, so you need Pure sunflower spread or vitalite), no cheese, no yogurt, no milk, and no 'hidden' dairy - label checking ahoy! Will def be worth it if it is the cause of your problems though.

margot - the murmur may mean nothing at all longer term, or it may mean just being careful when exercising, or it may mean major heart surgery, all depending on what is found to be the cause. But the likelihood of the latter is very very small.

My doctor recommends brown sugar in water for everything tummy related in babies. It's quite an old fashioned remedy, with afaik, no scientific basis, but I guess it must have worked for some people!

Monkeymargot have you tried settling him on his tummy? It really helps Alice when she's troubled by her bowels to let her settle to sleep on her tummy - I keep an eye on her then when I think she's in a deep sleep I try to flip her over onto her back without waking her, so I can stop watching her. So long as I time it right it seems to work quite well!

I like your thread title suggestion gibberingginger. Certainly can't come up with anything better in my sleep deprived state.

Right ladies, I've started a thread for us in post natal, HERE

Please do move across and join me .

Thanks for the title suggestion Ginger.

POST NATAL THREAD HERE

Hi all,

Joseph Thomas arrived on Friday 9th July after a relatively quick labour. Had to be induced in the end as was 12 days over and so fed up but it didn't take much to get me started.

He's a big boy at 9lb 5oz, all going well so far, out of hospital the next day and home to meet ds1 who seems to be coping pretty well with it all.

Bf going ok, my nipples are agony, I'd so hoped this time it wouldn't be as sore but no such luck! My milk isn't in yet and so far Joseph seems to just be sicking back up a lot of the colostrum he takes in.

Hope everyone else still waiting for their baby is coping ok - it is such a frustrating time! Hope as well everyone else doing ok with their newborns and the little obstacles they throw at us!

Should really get to bed now for some sleep whilst the little on is quiet.

Oh congratulations muchchocolate, and bugger that you were 20 mins too late to make it onto the stats at the start of the new thread!!!

Congratulations elena, Ilovemyterrier and theperfectbaguette

GG, CSWS and la T, sorry to read about your enforced dealings with the NHS and the inevitable disruption and worry that goes alongside.

All fine here - Alice had 8 week immunisations today and is the most miserable I've known her, so I'm really glad that the weather is cooler - London has been too hot for my liking during the last few weeks. Also, unsurprisingly given the eczema / hayfever etc gene pool that DH and myself have blessed our children with, looks like she has first signs of eczema. DS started at 9 weeks, and I feel better equipped and more positive this time round, so all will be well I'm sure.

Will check the thread again in a few days, hope all goes well for everyone in meantime.