AUGUST 2010 - welcome to post-natal :o)

[CherryPie3]

I know I'm not around a great deal lately but we don't yet have a PN thread - so here we are.

Love to all xxx

:)

chickie - i second the hot water bottle tip. we also replaced the sheet in D's moses basket with one of our pillow cases so it smells like our bed, which kind of works too and the sleeping bags are great for keeping him warm and getting him to lie still long enough for him to get over to sleep. final tip is the sleep sheep - we have one of these and i will def be buying for all my pregnant friends!! tho any kind of white noise would prob do the trick

sleep deprivation is the worst!!

trying warm water and vinegar after a feed to help with thrush as well as daktarin and nystation. doesn't seem to be getting worse but was thinking of getting some grape seed extract too - anyone tried this? had any success??? bloody thrush!!

Hey

Chick to start with F really liked to be swaddled, so i looked up more info on it, best proucts etc. I found a couple of articles where swaddling and cot death are mentioned. I found it all cotradicted itself tbh. For example, one article said that swaddling can help prevent cot death, but only a couple of lines down said that in 1 in 4 of cot deaths, the baby had been swaddled I wonder if the risks come from baby overheating? In our tkmaxx at the moment there are the swaddling wraps that velcro for £8. was tempted but have found that F is now much happier in a grobag.

Belly i had 'clicky' hips as a baby and had to wear a terry nappy over my normal nappy. I am fine, plus i was walking at 10mths too

Colic - infacol needs 7-10days to start working properly apparently. F has been on it a week now and is partway down his 2nd bottle. I have noticed a difference, mostly in that he seems more settled in his sleep, less grunts and squeaks and wriggling. Had quite a bad bout of colic last night, a warm lavender bath and baby massage seemed to help a lot. He then slept 10.30 - 4am!!! I was amazed! Unfortunately DD wanted me in the night though - typical! Going to try a warm lavender bath every night i think if it works that well, just wish i had chance for my own relaxing bath

Oh, and wanted to ask hat veryone is dressing their babies in now it has got noticeably cooler?

F is still in a short sleeved vest and a babygro, then when out with a fleece sleepsuit over the top and blanket, and at night a vest, babygro and grobag. His hands were cold when he woke though, so thinking about switching to long sleeved vests now.

He has outgrown some of his 0-3m clothes already! Although Boots and Primark ones come up a decent size so they are still ok on him

alice i tend to dress J in 'proper' clothes in the day, and at the moment it tends to be trousers, long-sleeved vest and long-sleeved top over. then when we go out i might add a cardigan. at night it varies, though he always wears a babygro and i haven't yet put a vest on him underneath as I'm saving that for when it gets really cold. the night before last he went in a 2.5 tog sleeping bag for the first time, and i turned down the scratch mitts on his babygro over his hands, and he slept brilliantly. last night i swaddled him to begin with and put a blanket over his legs as well as he always kicks them free from his swaddle blanket. i can't seem to feed and keep him swaddled, plus i tend to feed him to sleep on our sides at night feeds and keep him in bed with me, so when i fed him at 5ami put him in a lighter sleeping bag again (the 2.5 tog one was dirty). he woke up again at 6am with freezing cold hands - I'd forgotten to put the scratch mitt bits over his hands.

sorry that was an essay!

mrszac sorry to hear you're having such a rough time of it. i can confirm it all does get easier, but it's bloody hard at first, isn't it?

i think we have all had thrush at one time or another, yes!

am off out today to a memorial service for someone who was very kind to me when I was growing up. i'll sit somewhere i can take J out if he starts crying. i'm worried because he is due a big poo today - he only does them (noisily) every 4-5 days, and today is day 5. what's the betting we hear the distinctive squirting noise right in a quiet bit of the service?! plus they are a nightmare to clean up when away from home!

thanks for the advice ladies.

I was surprised at what the midwife said about swaddling as had never heard that before! might try a grobag seeing as it is getting cooler at night.

belly a friends baby was in a pawlik harnes, it was tricky at the time but she s two and a half now and completely fine!

Mrs Zac are you taking probiotics? I m taking them as a preemptive measure. I m taking lab4 biocare bio-acidophilus. I got them at wholefoods but i m sure you could get them at any good healthfood store.

sorry about post, things always seem so bad in the middle of the night :( its definitely not all bad and i m very lucky to have my little ds with me!

We have thrush too following antibiotics given to us (unnecessarily I think!) after the birth. DS has a horrible thrush nappy rash that won't go away, he's had it for about 4 weeks now and he's only 6 weeks old. He also had thrush in his mouth twice. Now we are on a regime of daktarin gel for his mouth, daktarin cream for his bottom and canesten cream for my nipples twice a day until everything is cleared up.

chickie we swaddle Sam cos he likes it. I don't have a swaddle blanket, just a normal blanket wrapped round him very tight. He does come unwrapped during the night but hey ho!

wrt thrush, I second the probiotics, I had those, grapefruit seed and daktarin and it went eventually.

cazzy 4 on your own? [faints] I'm having a hard enough time with 2 all week without DH.

Hello girls, congrats to all those who are persevering with bf despite bits dropping off/swelling up/generally being in agony!

FF for me is not without problems - Felicity refuses to finish her feeds in one go, if it's a 5 ounce feed, she will take 2 oz, lose interest for an hour then maybe take the other 2 - she has gone from 3 hours between feeds (on the dot), to 2 hours, and since it takes more than an hour to feed her it feels like I am constantly making up bottles and throwing away formula that she hasn't taken.

DH is on night duty tonight and tomorrow, whilst I sleep in the spare room with a pair of earplugs, bliss! I can do 5 nights no problem if I know I'm going to get a couple of good nights sleep, I honestly don't know how single parents cope, and everytime I think about having a moan at DH about how he forgot to do something/didn't do something to my unreasonably high standards, I have to remember what he does for me that I really appreciate. It's our first wedding anniversary next weekend - certainly didn't think we'd have a 7 week old baby by the time we'd been married a year!

Was looking at the SIDS website and was interested to see that they recommend baby is settled to sleep with a dummy as another cot death preventer - not sure what the science is behind it though.

dibby what bottles are you using?

Hi Sparkle so far we've tried TT Closer to Nature, Avent and Dr Brown's costing me a bloomin' fortune, but all claiming to reduce "windage" and having their own patented anti colic/wind gizmos (i.e. we can charge you double the price), any other suggestions welcome

She is very windy (up and down!) so we always pause for winding after she takes an ounce or so, as well as using Infacol or Gripe Water (which she seems to prefer). I just feel like this parenting lark is one big experiment in trial and error!

dibby we're bfing and Sam feeds every 2 hours, has painful wind and doesn't feed for longer than 10 mins at a time. I don't know how much he's taking but I reckon some babies are just more windy/refluxy than others. I should take him to the doc's really but I was hoping he'd have grown out of it by now...
Having seen 'Sleep Sheep' mentioned I'm now craving one for Sam, aibu?

Dibby did you buy variflow teats for TT closer to nature ones? Izzy was taking 90 mins to take each feed so by the time she had finished one feed we were near the next one as she kept falling asleep and then a friend reccomended the variflow teats as they are suitable from birth.

Izzy has a huge suck on her (which is why I had to give up BF) and the teats work to allow as much or as little milk as the suck requires, if she falls asleep now I change her and we're back on track, but they are absolutely brilliant!

Dibby, glad it's not just me with a 'snacking' formula fed baby. S definitely prefers to have 2oz every two hours than take more and go longer. Don't think changing the teats would help, as he feeds pretty quickly - but anything's worth a try!

Oh, and WRT the sleep sheep/white noise thing - we're not using it for S, but white noise was an absolute life saver with DS1. You can get a CD of white noise (with tracks like Hoover, Washing Machine etc), and we used to play it whenever DS went down for his sleeps (and it had to be REALLY loud to work!). It worked wonders - pretty much the only that stopped him screaming apart from walking him around in a sling. It makes us laugh that on DH's itunes, Hoover is still the most-listened-to track in his entire music collection .

Oh, and re clothes, S currently wears a short-sleeved vest with babygro (day and night time) - I've only put him in an outfit once so far. When I put him down during the day I put a blanket over him, and at night he's in a 2.5 tog grobag (I guess our room temp is about 20). If we go out I put a cardigan, hat and socks on him, though TBH he's often in the BabyBjorn, in which case I don't add a cardigan. Re the cold hands, although it's obviously fine to put scratch mitts or whatever on if it seems to make them happier, be careful not to judge their body temperature by their hands, as babies always have cold extremities and you can end up overheating them because you think they're chilly. Feel their chest instead - that should give you an idea of how cold/hot they are.

Daniel wears a vest, babygro and cardigan during the day and vest , babygro and grobag at night. I think I will try that rolling up towels thing to make them more secure! We are co-sleeping which is fine but he is 6wks old on Sunday and I want to try to move him into his moses basket/cot./ Tried last night - no way. Glad to hear infacol can take time to work, cos after 2days it wasn't very effective last night! Daniel was very unsettled after his 4.30am feed and didn't go back to sleep till about 6. He just kept wriggling and whinging.

Chick, if you feel your LO is fed, dry etc and tired then try leaving him to cry for 10 mins or so, they often will just drop off on their own, If he doesnt drop off I would try to wind him again and then feed him. I think babies mostly only cry out of hunger, but also wind and cos they want cuddles. But if they are tired and it is not wind they often drop off (esp if in a very dark room) on their own. Daniel seems to like this which my DS1 also loved. It plays music and puts a light show on the ceiling.

Typical - she has just taken a 4 oz feed in one go, took about 20 minutes - of course it might come back up in a few moments! Must be the eqivalent of taking your very ill child to an emergency drs appt only to have them run around the waiting room full of beans making you look like the winner of neurotic mother of the year award...

She does tend to be a real dribbler when she feeds - I should have taken out shares in whoever makes muslins - a piddly bib is no contest for her.

F is in a short sleeved vest and white babygro day and night, we sometimes jazz it up with a pink cardigan if we're in public, in case people think she's a boy. I do have lots of outfits which we were given as presents, but they're such a faff - have you tried getting tights on and off a grumpy newborn just to check a nappy . I will never buy daft outfits for a friend's newborn ever again - it'll be a beauty salon treatment for mum instead!

Has anyone "seen" Pamplemousse (sp?) around recently?

Dibby, I know exactly what you mean - we've got so many outfits that will never be worn. Including one I got myself - but that's the fault of the weather and the fact that S was late. I got him a gorgeous little romper, but it was never warm enough for him to wear it . And yes, have you noticed that it's your friends with young children who generally either buy you nice practical vests/babygros/cardigans, or only get outfits in 3-6 months or bigger? Plus they don't buy you a 3-6 month sunsuit when you have your baby in August .

As we didn't know whether F would be pink or blue before she was born we've got masses of cream/white stuff and I can't really justify buying much at the moment just to indulge in a bit of pink shopping, when she'll grow out of it so quickly (have already packed away all her newborn babygros and vests, sob!) so I have been indulging in the end of season sales for stuff for next summer - loads of 9-12 month stuff put away for next year - sshhh, don't tell DH...

My mum bought her a beautiful broderie anglaise dress and knickerbocker set, but the weather was so crap she never had it on (and it was very impractical if gorgeous) - in the end I put it on her, took a photo, then packed it away

Going to take advantage of the fact the she shouldn't need a feed for at least 2.5 hours and go to the shops to get some of this miracle lavender baby bath stuff that people speak so highly of.

Need to get DH to put the curtains up in F's room this weekend, so I can start putting her in there for her naps - she's in the moses basket in the lounge during the day, but I think it's too noisy/light for her, the phone always seems to ring as she's ready to go off, or the dog barks at someone who has the temerity to walk past our house - he thinks we own the whole street

Fleecy sleepsuits all the way!! Have got loads of great winter-suitable stuff for going out and about but its for 3-6 months (dibby - yes, bought by practical friends/family lol) and altho D is prob about 9lb 8oz or so now he's not really big enough for this stuff yet. So fleecy sleep suits over a babygro are what we go for when we're taking him out, with possible addition of hat and scratch mittens if it's particularly cold.

Thrush doing my head in! Just beginning to realise what an undertaking its going to be to get rid of it - changing towels every day, only using a muslin square for one feed, changing breast pads every feed, hot water and vinegar after every feed, daktarin cream for me and him, nystatin for him, eating pro-biotic yogurt etc etc I know we seem to have it fairly easy in that DS hasn't lost his appetite and even tho its pretty sore for me its not unbearable to feed him so I guess we'll soldier on through but his mouth does seem sore, his poo is very runny and its hard to get him settled at the min. Rant, rant, rant!! Made it out to the park and the shops with him in the buggy on my own for the first time today - v proud! Now somehow have to try and find the time to slap on a bit of fake tan and pluck eyebrows cos off to a friend's wedding tomorrow for a few hours and don't want to look like a complete mess :-/

Happy Friday everyone :)

Littlemiss i ended up plucking my eyebrows when i was sat on the loo now that is multitasking!

I last heard from Pample last week i think, was planning on sending her a message today actually.

For restless babies, sometmes i find if F is restless and doesn't know what he wants then putting him in his swing with the music on really helps, sometimes it cheers him up, or sends him to sleep.

My nursing chair arrived today!! So nice to have somewhere to feed that doesn't hurt my neck and back.

We have a baby sale in town tomorrow (like the nct ones) so going to see what i can pick up.

wrt to bottles I bought 4 big avent ones from mothercare for 19 quid then went to wilkinsons and got them for 3 quid each so took them back to mothercare. The wilko ones are anti colic too and they also had the tommee tippee ones.

well done on going out by yourself with baby littlemiss and good luck with the fake tan and eyebrow tidy :)enjoy the wedding

i m trying to grow out my eyebrows as they got butchered before i had ds. got them threaded and the therapist ignored me when i said i didnt want them too thin!!

thanks for the advice neenz will see how we get on tonight.

on the subject of clothes, what are bf mummies wearing? any advice on where to buy stuff that s nice but not too expensive? a friend gave me a boob top but they re kinda pricey

I got DS a "cot book" today - a soft fabric book with high contrast black/white/red patterns and images - and he loves it! He's just spent 15 minutes lying on his play mat staring at it

Clothes - ds is either in a vest and babygro or a vest, t-shirt and tracksuit bottoms. Plus a cardigan and sometimes a hat if we go out. Our bedroom is quite warm, 20-22 degrees, so at night he's in a vest, babygro and 1 tog sleeping bag.

chickie - must admit I'm not wearing any nice stuff at the moment! I got a couple of nice JoJoMamanBebe tops second hand on ebay, but other than that generally wear a vest top under a t-shirt, so I can pull the vest down and the t-shirt up when feeding in public. Bought lots a size bigger than normal in Primark.

Long loose tunic tops/dresses with high waisted jeans. Hides a multitude of sins and find that when F finishes feeding i can drop the top down and sort my bra/breast pad out discreetly underneath.