Late October 2020 babies - Support Thread

[Mc3209]

Graduating from Pregnancy forum into Parenting one! I feel almost grown up.

And of course everyone is welcome to join!

@DressingGown87 @Jaffas22 @DogCatDex @EmmaA96 @Parks11 @LadyB90 @Strawberries4days @LST87 @sls668 @plentyofplants @Uppsydaisy
@sunbreak @FirstSurprise001 @WaveStreet @roarfeckingroar
@Mc3209 @KitKatKit @1990shopefulftm @Lolllyf @HelenMarie1001 @Freddie1987 @BS9790 @hmeadow24 @Ghostworld @roarfeckingroarr @Glooorb @mamavee @UpsyDaisy1234 @Samk93
@60sPony @Monkeyseesmonkeydoesnt @AdventureAhead @Elizag20 @justtb @Clalou83 @SJR86 @Flora20 @Watersintheclouds @Jaffas22 @justtb

I am sorry if I missed anyone!

@Glooorb I can’t see any bogies, only the occasionally one but have an aspirator but nothing to suck at. She just seems very congested, she’s now struggling to finish her feeds. Has dropped from 900ml a day to about 500ml.

@krissy12 thank you, picked some up today and tried it in the bath tonight, so will see if it helps.

Just feel useless not being able to help get rid of this congestion, as I can see it’s irritating her, as she will rub her nose and face a lot.

@Monkeyseesmonkeydoesnt hope you had a better nap day, and huckleberry has helped. I struggle to see paiges cues, it can go from happy, to extreme overtiredness in the blink of an eye. I try follow the awake windows now, rather than looking for the signal.

@DressingGown87 that's a shame fingers crossed it helps and she feels better soon

Gag, my baby has a flat spot on his head 😩 I'm doing 25 mins to 1 hour tummy time per day, plus sling time plus carrying/holding time, and he still got a flat spot, and it's not even central, it's more to the side because when he worn he preferred to sleep with his head turned to the left. Now he grew out of that, but flat head is here.
I really really hope it gets better with time, as I am at loss with what else I can do..

@Mc3209 wow that's an impressive amount of tummy time. I really need to give Oscar some more - he spends maybe 10 mins a day for tummy time, if that. What do you do to entertain him when it is tummy time? I use a toy or read a book in front of him but he runs out of interest pretty soon.

@DressingGown87 hope Paige is better with her congestion!

Here I am with a 4th blocked duct in 2 weeks. I'm so so fed up. Trying not to be anxious but it's really hard on my mental health and stress level. I've tried everything it seems...
Massage, hot compress and hot shower, electric toothbrush, ibuprofen, feed as much as possible, but nothing is working on this latest blockage. I've now started taking lecithin so hopefully keep any future outbreaks at bay.

Unrelated topic - does anyone feel like they run out of things to do with their little one? Oscar's typical day he feeds 6 times from 9am until end of day, plus 1/2 night feeds. After feeding he gets some play time where we do a fess was from following list: we walk around the house; look at the mirrors; read a couple of books; go on the park mat, tummy time; sings songs. But then that's it. The activities are pretty short, so we run out of things to do and I feel like a bit of matured mum who can't entertained her son.

Lol all the autocorrect mistakes...
Let me post this bit again since the last didn't make sense.

Unrelated topic - does anyone feel like they run out of things to do with their little one? Oscar's typical day he feeds 6 times from 9am until end of day, plus 1/2 night feeds. After day feeding he gets some play time where we do an activity from the following list: we walk around the house; look at the mirrors; read a couple of books; go on the park mat, tummy time; sings songs. But then that's it. The activities are pretty short, so we run out of things to do and I feel like a bit of failed mum who can't entertain or stimulate her son sufficiently.

@Glooorb it's hard work entertaining him during tummy time 😂 I usually get down on the floor with him and do a mix of: black and white books, noisy toy with lights/songs, makeshift one person percussion band using rattles, facing him and talking to him (I have to be on my belly for this too). I got a tip from another mum and bought one of those emergency foil blankets from Amazon and it was a massive win - he loves grabbing at it during tummy time and back time as it makes an awesome crinkly sound and is very entertaining for him to look at. Best £1.75 spent 😂

This is my experience of entertaining a baby that doesn't sleep during the day (and having a DH who doesn't really play with the baby):

• peek a boo
• listening to music (I play piano he hangs out with me in his bouncy chair with some toys during that time)
• Back, side, and tummy time on the floor. Back time can be either under a baby gym thing, or just on a floor mat +/- that foil blanket (baby goes on top of it) surrounded by toys/rattles. I aim for min 20 mins of back/side time per session, tummy time usually works out approx 8-12 mins per session. Do multiple sessions per day.
• Reading stories/books. I tend to go into a lot of details describing pictures for him as I find I work through the text very quickly!
• Put baby in a sling and get on with my day, narrating what I am doing as a go along. He enjoys joining me for housework (especially hoovering 😂) and baking.
• Outside time: either a walk with a pram or going into back garden to look at the trees/listen to birds etc. whilst narrating what he sees (not when I am in public with a pram - it's my silent sanity time!)
• Face to face time: I sit him on my lap facing me when I am semi reclined on a sofa (his back resting on my bent legs) and pull faces, talk, sing rhymes, play with rattles, count his fingers/toes etc.

I just cycle through above during the day. Don't feel like you need to do one type of activity only once during the day, just rotate through it.

I am now getting quite good at just narrating even the most mundane aspects of my life in great detail 😂

@Glooorb it's frustrating re blocked ducts. Sounds like you are doing all the right things. I don't have personal experience of this, hopefully someone more useful will be along shortly.
I do have a hand pump on my bedside table, so if one of my boobs feels very full after a night feed (usually the other one), I pump some milk off. I do it mainly for comfort, to prevent milk leaking all over the bedsheets, and to add to my emergency stash in the freezer. I suppose it keeps milk flowing and possibly prevent blocked ducts.

I've re-read my post above. It sounds like I am in the kitchen baking every day, I am not! I got a kitchen aid mixer from Santa, and I love using it, so I aim to bake a cake per week, plus quick things like lactation cookies once in a while.

When do you, ladies, find time/energy to DTD with your other halves?! By the time baby is down for the night we are both too tired to do anything, during workweek mornings are out of the question (DH leaves for work relatively early and I am usually barely responsive at that time 😂), which leaves weekend mornings. But I don't like morning sex 😩 morning breath etc. Baby barely sleeps during the day so that doesn't leave much room for DTD either.. As I am typing this I am realising that I may need to start adjusting my attitude to morning activities if I ever want to have sex again...

I also feel we are running out of things to do and what we do is getting really repetitive. we tend to some time in the swing for a nap, big walk every day in the pram, tummy time, time on the playmat, playing with a foil blanket, nursery rhymes and he loves playing with a balloon and getting it dropped on his head. we are starting a zoom baby sensory class this week so hoping to get more ideas from that.

a good way I find to get extra tummy time in is putting my knees up and lying him up my legs with his head over the top of my knees. I either do this in the morning when still in bed or sitting on the couch and he automatically will lift his head up to look around the room. I find he manages longer this way than on his playmat on a pillow

I also have a light projector that he loves to watch

We have tummy time, use the playmat and he sits in his chair holding various toys.
I narrate various chores to him, even try to make putting the washing away sound exciting.
I was quite grumpy waking up to snow this morning as it's too deep from the pram wheels for sure, as I try to get out for a walk with him everyday.

We go out every day, despite the fact she hates the pram! We have a dog so he needs a walk daily and try go to my Mums a few times a week.
She’s not a fan of tummy time so she mostly just does it on one of our chests but I don’t worry about that too much (I work in a nursery and it’s very rare you can tell how much tummy time a baby did earlier in life!). We read a lot which she seems to enjoy, generally I just chat to her all the time, have her facing me and chat away to her. She loves the bath so when she’s in there we do lots of splashing and singing. She won’t be put down much so it’s mainly just carrying her and chatting. Last night she enjoyed watching dancing on ice 😂

Thanks everyone for activity ideas! I'm written it all down on a list to rotate through!

@Mc3209 no proper DTD since I'm still not 100% healed after my episiotomy ☹️ good thing the DH is understanding... what time does your baby go down for the night? DH and I manage to have cuddle times at weekends during the day or after he goes down in the evening around the 10 pm.

@Glooorb thank you, she seems a lot better. Just typical that we have no gas this week, (planned major gas works for the whole street) so on fan heaters which are such a dry heat, and I can’t give her a bath to help. Aww I hope the duct clears soon, and that the lecithin helps.

You sound like your doing a great job, it’s so hard to entertain them at such a young age. I echo what people say with activities. We always go for a walk (hour plus) bath (30mins) everyday, plus we do chores. She will go in the highchair in the kitchen whilst I am in there. She has rattles / toys that she can grab. We also do teddy puppets, and shadow puppets with a torch (which she loves), also loves ribbons, maracas, and the light protector. Bouncer, playmat (she has the kick one and loves it), tummy time (mirror or toys placed on the floor in front), and lots of face to face chatting. I also let her have a little bit of tv time each day, usually put sensory or something on. She giggles loads at Peter Rabbit though.

@mc3209 you sound like your doing everything you can to help his flat spot, so don’t worry. It’s quite common (I know my niece has it) and he will grow out of. If your concerned see if your HV can advise, but you sound like your doing a fab job!

@krissy12 the bubbles seemed to help thank you.

DD looks like she's starting to roll over but she's doing it back to tummy! I don't want to stop her but isn't it usually tummy to back first? She's still not a fan of tummy time and the longest she's done is 13 mins yesterday! She's so eager to roll over to her tummy too and she's nearly got it

Impressed with all the rolling babies! Mine just shifting his weight from forearm to forearm very occasionally when on his tummy. No sign of a roll yet.

@Glooorb Rafa is usually asleep by 10-11pm, but my DH and me are pretty much in the same state of passing out for the night by then.

@mc3209 no dtd here, DS will go in the chair for a short time but I think I wouldn't be able to do it while he's awake, and he isn't yet sleeping separately! We're trying to get cuddles in and shower together at weekends. To be honest I've been fine not doing it, my nipples are a bit sore to touch and at the moment that 'touched out' sensation is feeling v familiar.. Our anniversary is coming up and so ill probably try to do something nice for dp then but I'm happy to just focus on him iyswim

Certainly no sex here ladies! I have tried to get the implant but everywhere locally arnt doing them due to covid 🤔. Not sure what to go for now though my twins are only 12 weeks I need to feel protected from this ever happening again 😂 lol!

One of my twins slept 9pm untill 7-30am last night, I wanted to go out onto the street and tell random people I was so overjoyed! I know how bad the sleep brag is though so genuinely wouldnt do this! But feels so good after having gone through the first sleep deprived months of twin life, and I hope writing it here is ok with anyone who is struggling sleep wise.

I have two other children so fully aware it doesn't last consistently and we've still got the other twin who wakes at least twice a night if it's any consolation

My little one has been squirming and kicking and farting at night so I think he's got some trapped wind but it only happens at night in the wee hours.. would you give infacol for that? And if so am I right in thinking I would need to do it for every feed for it to work? Not just when he's struggling? Ive heard it can cause constipation?

@Strawberries4days aww well done DD hope she enjoyed her new skill.

@ChampooPapi you sound like your doing an amazing job with twins and two other DD.

@GhostWorld when I was advised to use infacol at the start, i was told every feed for it to work. Could you use gripe water? That seems to help trapped wind, and you could give it at the last feed / two feeds.

@GhostWorld we use colief drops it's so good for helping with wind. we formula feed though I'm not sure how easy it would be to give if you BF

Anyone else feeling down about their PP weight loss?
I cried on DH this morning as I ve lost half a stone in 2 months and this week haven't lost anything despite upping my exercise and cutting my calories further, I hate how my stomach looks but more so I m scared of staying overweight after the high blood pressure and sepsis in the hospital and that being this weight is more likely to make me ill.
Honestly if one more person says to me "you ve just had a baby, don't worry about your weight" I think I might slap them.

Thanks @dressinggown and @krissy I'll look into those, sainsburys didn't have gripe water today so I'll try boots!

@GhostWorld Boots does an apple flavour gripe water that's much cheaper than the branded one.

Has anyone else's baby been trying to pull themselves up? she's been trying to pull herself forward almost like she wants to sit up. This would be a huge milestone (sitting up) but I'm worried about her neck as she always has her chin on her chest while trying to do it. Is there any tips on how to help her lift her head up? She hates tummy time, the most she can do is 5 mins in spurts but she does have a strong neck since it's always up when she's on my shoulder.Just don't want her to try it when she could be trying too early and injure herself🙈 she was half way trying to roll but now she wants to do this too and I'm like pick one to focus on😂

@Strawberries4days my little one likes to be sat up, I feel she’s past being a baby, she hates laying around not doing much 😂 she’s quite good at holding her head up though. If she’s keeping it down on her chest I can usually distract her with something visually to get her to look up.

Has anyone else noticed the October 2021 babies thread in pregnancy?! So funny to think that was us this time last year 🥰