May Babies

[GeorginaA]

Have we got enough that I can officially open this thread yet?

How are your little ones doing prufrock, twiglett, snowbird?

I think mine is going down with jaundice. Dh isn't convinced, but it's either that or he's got a lovely tan sigh. I remember all the stress associated with that last time with ds1... hoping ds2 doesn't get it as badly.

He's still being a very sicky baby, about a couple of teaspoons a few hours after each feed (which is odd - I'd have thought if it was a reflux type thing it would happen immediately after the feed?) Midwife seems to think it'll settle after the milk comes in but if not then we'll look at some sort of baby gaviscon. Poor little mite, can't be comfortable for him... and we're sure getting through a lot of laundry!

Feel so bloody knackered at the moment, fed up of bits leaking and being sore, and it's only day 2! How long is it before you start feeling human again? Please tell me that it's sooner than the 2 week paternity leave dh gets!!

have sent you an email georgina, hopefully you'll get it. wondering if should just stick all this out. she's actually doing fine and is sleeping most of time. just getting to bed thats the hard part.

after all that sleep yesterday, she did actually have a night that was a bit better than normal. she went for 3 hours between the first 2 feeds of the night, then at 4am onwards wanted 2 hourly feeds. seems to want 2 hours today as well.................can hear her...........

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You and me both twiglett (although I did have fairly crappy pregnancies so have paid some dues) I wish ds would sleep 10.30 to 7! (although I remember dd did do 11-6.45 at 8 weeks) ds woke at 4.45 last night, then had to be woken at 7.30 (we actually do GF routines +30 minutes as I hate mornings)

Linnett - HV came at 2weeks, then again at 6 (I think) but didn't bother weighing at that point as could tell just by looking that he had grown (and as bf can't grow too much). There is a weekly clinic I can go to - I jiust can't be bothered, and don't particularly need any help or advice - well apart from Mumsnet. (I wasn't likethis with my first though )

Egypt - read your post in more detail. I think your problem is that she is overtired in the evening - 5-6 hours really is too long for a 5 weeker to be up at one stretch. In a GF world you would cut the lunchtime nap to 2 1/2 hours then do a mid afternoon nap, or, if you like your long lunchtime break you could just try to get her to have an hour at some point i the early evening. We went through a similar situation with dd when she just would not settle after the 7pm feed. We resorted to walking her round in teh parm to get at least some sleep as otherwise we would have 2 hours of screaming at 10pm.
If she is overtired when she does finally go to sleep tehn she will fall straight into a deep sleep, which will (according to Gina) then make the middle of the night sleep lighter and more unsettled.

hi prufrock, thanks for the advice....just looking at my posts and trying to see where i said she was up for 5 hours. she doesnt stay awake for that long. she'll have half an hour or so, more in the evening, awake time after each feed in the day. we let her sleep in her bouncy chair most of the day except 3oclock ish nap/long sleep. sorry, dont know where i said she was awake for 5 hours. or did u mean 5 hours is too much sleep in one go in the day?

aha , i see now where i said she awake and a nightmare from 3 or 4 till 10 or 11. she isnt actually awake all that time, but does have lots of cries and grumbles between some short unregular naps. shall try and get her to sleep around 6 by going for a walk tonight and see if that helps. bed at 8 ish. thanks !

Eek, just made a mistake with my dates for an important party coming up and it is actually this Friday. I really ought to go as it is the 30th birthday for my bestest mate in the world (she stood by me when everything kicked off last year and is truly amazing).

DP is more than happy to stay at home but the main problem is that DS will obviously want feeding! so what would be the best thing to do? he is currently breast fed exclusively and still hasn't had much of a bottle (once had 1.5 ozs during the day as an experiment) - I can express milk just fine in the mornings so would rather do that (rather than formula) but what would the best way to introduce the bottle in the next 4 days?! I am flipping hopeless at times and I am so cross with myself! I really don't want DP to have a fight on his hands . . .

Thanks in advance. Libb xxx

Just had Mum's cousin who's a bright eyed and bushy tailed retired dentist take dd for walk in pram. Magic dental spells of some kind? Dd slept In Pram During Day for about three hours under Sheila's care. Amazing. Sometimes I wonder if she's not that unputdownable after all and it's a new mum thing... ie. being too chicken to let her cry more than a tiny bit, giving her what she wants at the first opportunity and really rather liking the cuddliness of carrying her around all the time. Sheila had 3 kids of her own and lots of grandchildren now, and she just treats a baby like a baby!

So I got a whole afternoon to mself , pretty much. . But there were all sorts of boring things needing doing, so don't get jealous girls. xxx good mood!

Libb how exciting! parteeee... what will you wear?

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wow, lucky you spots. hope you got some rest- or like me think, right, now i must catch up on ironing/washing/cleaning......

libb, i was in exactly this position last week. dd had had 2 bottles of ebm as experiments. i expressed like mad most of the week and gave her a bottle in the evenings, just a bit, (didnt want to waste milk) and finished her off onthe breast. she took the bottle fine after a bit of coaxing - and sucking of dh's finger, to cue her as to what she was supposed to do. froze milk all the week then on friday morning put all the frozen in the fridge to defrost. there was only 10oz in all, as i was having to give dd some in the evenings as i said, but that was more than enough. still, was on the edge of my seat all night at the restaurant and resisted calling dh. left at the earliest opportunity and drove at a million mph home, but dd was asleep! lovely relaxed evening and night. a break did me good and will you too. make sure you go. hth

p.s. found that expressing one breat whilst feeding off the other really helped me 100%. my milk flow is about nil when expressing alone. expressed for about 2 feeds each day like this

spots - I think some of it is that "strangers" don't smell of mummy's milk so are easier to settle with them... I'm amazed at how quickly and easily ds2 will doze off in other people's arms or settle for Daddy.

thanks for your email georgina......we had a great night last night!!! i am amazed. wasnt due to GF, but your suggestion of making her have a sleep in the eve must have helped. she actually had 2 hours not one, from 5 -7 but i couldnt being myself to wake her. anyway......she went to bed at 8 after a HUGE feed and stayed quiet. did a bit of face rubbing ang gurgling for 1/2 an hour then went to sleep. this is fantastic. can't believe it. ok, so she didnt sleep for long between feeds - still (next battle) woke at 10, 12, 3.30, 4.30 (but gave her my finger to suck instead and she went off) 5.30, 8 am. BUT made a change not having an awake baby from 5am onwards........

phew. as well as the huge feed, sleep at 5pm my white noise machine came so put the heartbeat on and instead of putting her in a growbag, tucked her in really tightly with a blanket. so, one of these things did the trick! will try them all tonight.....fingers crossed!

sorry, prufrock - it was your suggestion of having a nap early eve - thanks x

hi all..i'm sandi and i gave birth to my 2nd son on 12th may..weighed 7lb 2oz..i think mumsnet is great and looking 4ward to making some friends on the net..i love reading everone's stories..the experiences are all varied and so diverse..going for the 1st injection 2day..he also has cradle cap on the eyebrows only..anyon1 had this too?..if so how r u dealing with it..i'm only using olive oil..

Egypt i think were probably in the same boat. as first time mums we have nothing to go on and so dont know if what were doing is normal. i keep trying to put her on gf thinking thats whats normal and it would take the guess work out of what im doing. i think ill just have to go with whatever dd wants. there is no set structure to our day apart from awake and play time from around 5ish, this is where she sits in her rocker in the kitchen/garden while i do dinner, then she has a bath at 6.30-7 and a feed between 7-8.she generally wakes at 7am and then is awake and alert for about 2 hours. sleep of course is on my lap so we dont really have any specific nap times. Feeding during the night tends to be between 1-2.30 and 4-5.30 and in the day i try and make it every 2-3 hours but if shes crying i generally feed her earlier.so its at different times every day. because she only feeds for 10 minutes i think thats why gf didnt work for us as she allows 40 minutes for feeding. e.g 20 mins on one boob and then the other.DD also wakes up at 5am every day with really bad wind. she strains and groans before crying and then i have to settle her back. i think i have also found out why she wont be put down to sleep! she flings her arms and legs about which seem to frighten her and then she gets hysterical. swaddling has helped a bit, unless she escapes and then she wakes up. its easier on my lap otherwise im up and down trying to reswaddle her. i dont have the nac to it. dp is really good and she stays swaddled for hours.
cant remember who asked the ebm question. we just gave dd the bottle one evening and she took it fine. if we do get any probs we just get her to suck our finger and then give the bottle. my mum has had her twice now with no problems.
sorry about grammer one handed typing!!!!

Egypt - ooo you got the white noise machine in the end? It's good isn't it I was stunned how much easier it was to settle ds2 with the heartbeat on. Mind you, by the sound of it, that early evening nap did great things for your little one too

I'm glad you had a better evening Egypt.
Kbaby my ds only feeds for 5 mins at a time now and GF works for us. I'm not suggesting you have to keep going with it, but the best two bits of advice out of it - which can be applied even if you prefer a more flexible method, are to not let your baby stay awake more than 2-3 hours at a time and to make the sleeps proper ones rather than 10 minute catnaps, and to try to stretch out the time between feeds so that when you do feed, the baby has a proper meal. On the days when something happens to send us off routine ds always gets grumpy if I allow him to snack and catnap whenever he wants - I think he never really gets properly fed or rested.

Now can I be allowed a little rejoicing? ds is 10 weeks today (can't believe I've known him for that long) and just the most adorable little gurgling thing. And he slept last night from 8.30 to 5.45 this morning, and then fed and slept again until 7.30am. I am so very very happy and loved up. (Of course by next week he'll be waking lots, and dd will have been playing up, and I'll be on here moaning again, but right now, life is pretty wonderful)

Hi Sandi102, welcome to the exhausted world of the May babies - I really hope you find answers to any questions you may have! feel free to vent spleen too (we all have at some point!) As you can see we are all doing the mummy thing in our own unique way but without doubt have the best babies in the world!

ds2 is 8 weeks today and is a porky 10lb 1oz. I say porky even though that's only just above 9th centile because he's started gaining more than his centile, which I'm bizarrely really chuffed about (ds1 really struggled to put on weight and his line was wobbling all over the place). He's also really cooey, settles nicely for naps (he "chatted" to the lion on his mobile before going to sleep this morning!). He has got a bit of a nasty cough today though from his cold - I'm hoping he's going to be well enough for his jabs next Monday, I'm loathe to push the date back in case the surgery change their mind re: infanrix!

Ds1 though is getting a bit of a nightmare. He's waking up and tantruming over getting dressed, being whingy all day, then tantruming over going to bed. I'm really trying hard to make sure we get lots of play together when ds2 is asleep and frankly he probably gets more attention now than he ever did while I was pregnant and knackered all the time! He's driving me nuts and I can hear myself getting more and more short-tempered with him. I'm not sure if it's to do with the new baby, or just a "I'm 3" type thing (I have a friend who has an only child of 3 years old having the same behavioural issues at the moment, so I suspect it could just be a bit of both). Each night I peek in his room and see him looking so gorgeous in his sleep and promise myself that I'll be a better mummy the next day, and each day I get to 10am and feel like I'm going to explode!

Hard to believe my little 8 week bundle is one day going to be 3 years old too

Hi Sandi, welcome Hope you're finding mumsnet as useful as I have!
Libb-ohh first big outing you should definatly go. Like Georgina says, it will work DS will be fine. Suggestion though, may be a good idea to just have some formula on stand by in case breast milk runs out, gets spilt etc. This won't happen but it might make you feel better to know you have back up! Looking forward to meeting BTW, let me know about that.
Spots, sounds good Dentists usualy have the opposite effect on me! Hope you manage to get some rest.
Oh and Sandi, how's the olive oil working on the cradle cap? I used that on DD and it seems to have done the trick.
xx

welcome sandi - my dd has peely eyebrows, not too bad, didn't consider it being cradle cap, but olive oil on her feet when she was tiny worked!

prufrock - i hope and pray that my dd sleeps like your ds one day! thats great. dont know how u have the strength to keep going with 2 georgina.

we'll get there kbaby. thats good advice from prufrock about the times. we're off to devon for w/e and i can imagine all hell breaking loose. will try to stick to some sort of routine.

Hi Sandi and welcome. My dd2 also has cradle cap on her eyebrows, the dr told me to continue using the Almond oil that I've been putting on her head and eyebrows but I didn't like the way the oil was seeping onto her eyelids. So, today the Health visitor suggested buying Aqueous cream, you get it in boots and you have to buy it at the pharmacy counter. She said to get it as it's easier to control being a cream rather than an oil. Hoping that it works.

Dd2 was weighed again today by HV and she's now 10lbs 15oz, I cannot believe that she weighs that much she's gained over 1lb in a week. I mean she is getting bigger, every day you can see it but I certainly didn't think that she was that heavy, she doesn't feel that heavy. I guess she's going to be the chunky one and take after me as a child where as dd1 is the skinny one who takes after her dad, who knows maybe I'll be wrong.

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am I the only one who can't say cradle cap? it always comes out as cadle c**p . . . got told off by me mum the other night . . .

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