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

:)

Finally got time to post!
So, S has been cluster feeding for around five hours in the middle of the night for the last six or seven days now. I'm exhausted beyond belief -- especially as nights like last night she cluster fed from 5pm-12am, slept till 2.30 and then fed until 6 ish. Having been feeling very down about it as the time she doesn't spend feeding she was screaming with pain from wind.

Anyway yesterday we got a phone call offering us a cancellation for her tongue tie today. She's had it done and despite the GPs telling me that 'she didn't really have one' the consultant classed it as 75% medium-thick tongue tie. Absolute revelation... she's had two feeds since 10am this morning, of only about 20 mins, and settled immediately after. Keep your fingers crossed for me that it continues.... looking v hopeful though. She's like a completely different baby. I can only think that her inefficient feeding meant she was constantly starving....

Anyway v cross with GP who has no expertise in this area, but equally massively relieved. Ahh!

V jealous of all the pre-pregnancy clothes talk. I have no hope :( In size 14-16 maternity clothes, massive belly overhang as a result of the section and road map of stretch marks.... boo hiss....

Oh also my C section wound has gone and got infected and I think I might be coming down with mastitis as having periodic hot/shivering phases and v sore boobs!

Am reading all the posts on my iPhone and hope to be able to post more often (and positively) once Scarlett's feeding calms down...

pample I didn't really have much overhang with the first section but this one is horrendous :( not sure how to get rid of it either. I'm so glad the tongue-tie's been sorted. It wouldn't be surprising (although not nice at all) if you got mastitis because with a 75% tie Scarlett won't have been draining you efficiently. Make sure you go to a proper GPs and get some antiB's though, you'll struggle otherwise (and then watch out for thrush...) who said having babies/bfing was easy?!

poor you pample, though great that the tongue tie is sorted now. Hope the GP will see the error of his/her ways now!
If you think you might have mastitis don't delay in contacting doc/midwife/hv, although if your scar is infected maybe that's what's causing the feverishness.
I recommend savoy cabbage leaves in your bra to help the sore breasts.

I'm quite happy to still be in my maternity jeans to be honest - I think I deserve a few weeks of sitting on the sofa eating biscuits! Though I have promised a friend I'll start going to aerobics with her

Morning

Pample that is great news! If you can get a manual pump, express after each feed for a couple of days and it will help drain the breast properly. Also paracetamol and lots of water

Chulita DD was recommended a drop of pure orange juice in water for constipation. It did work and she was only small.

Poor F has caught my cold, he is feeling very sorry for himself this morning and has been up a few times in the night. DD as also up twice (very unlike her, think it was nightmares ) and as DH had to be up at 5am i was up each time. Also had to be sucking strepsils almost constantly due to my really sore throat. Today will be a day of carbs and telly i think.

Internet also dodgy

morning all!!

pample - sorry you've had such a hard time but so glad to hear things seem to be improving for you now. second alice's recommendation to use a manual pump, really helped me deal with engorgement...

a friend called in to visit last night so it ended up being about 9:45 before we gave D his bath but then he slept from 10:30 til 02:45 and then from 3 til 7. happy days!! he seems as lively and awake as ever this morning tho so i guess i'll be chasing my tail again all day, i think someone should tell DS he's supposed to be sleeping for 16 hours a day lol

Why do they wait for a new nappy before they poo? Two nappy changes in the last 20 minutes and he's just pooed again.

it's happened to me twice today that he's pooed while i've been doing up his clothes after changing his nappy. little pickle

Sam did 2 in 20 mins too today...such a waste, once we've moved he's going into cloth! He's also been asleep since about 12, eek! he doesn't sleep this long at night, what's all this about?
I keep making decisions about when I'm starting weight loss - 2 weeks, 4, 6 now it's not til we've moved sometime I will have to face up to it and start. I think it will be once we've moved though, got food to eat up first :)

Chulita - I think everyone needs 6 weeks off after you've had a baby, no point in being a masochist!!!

MoonUnit, Marzipan - I know, nappies everywhere!! Ahhh!!! Earlier he pooed on the changing mat too lol

Chulita it's properly rubbish isn't it? I'm not quite sure how to get rid of it either :(.... I'm all boobs and belly at the moment with these little spindly legs! Was less than impressed when I caught sight of my reflection today and realised that I still look about five months pregnant (but without the pleasantly hard stomach of pregnancy). Can also sympathise on the sleeping front, Scarlett has always slept much longer in the day (sometimes 4 hours) than at night (often an hour).....
Alice and LittleMiss have an electric pump and just about to have an express. It's been difficult to before now because S was demanding food every hour or so, so it didn't give my supply chance to get up sufficiently after expressing ready for a feed.

Sleep wasn't great last night but have realised the position I feed in in bed produces a crap latch. Had to make the painful step of deciding to feed on the sofa now, where I can get a proper latch, rather than bed. It's going to hurt! Slightly better night nevertheless, though was a bit freaked as DH promised to watch S while she was feeding and insisted I shut my eyes and said he'd move her to her basket when she was done. He fell asleep too and I woke up two hours later with her sleeping on me. I keep falling asleep with her on me (prob unsurprising given than from 1-5am each of the last 8 nights she's been feeding or awake and screaming for food). Bad mummy. I know the risk of SIDS but I'm so exhausted. Maybe caffienated drinks during feeds?
marzipan midwife came today and my scar is still looking pretty infected in one area. She reckons shiveryness is probably due to that, but if it is mastitis the antibiotics should probably sort it.
OK off to express.
My life atm is sleep feed (her not me) wind cry (both of us!) boo! But on a positive note had my hair cut today and DH looked after a beautifully sleeping baby for the thirty mins it took! Yay!

Oh Pample, you're having a rough time of it [big hugs] I've fallen asleep with Felicity on me a few times in bed, and I'm bottle feeding, goodness knows how you guys are coping with the mad cluster feeding. I like to think that I never really go into a deep sleep when I'm "on duty", it's weird, even though I'm asleep I know she's there and I don't move at all. On a Friday and Saturday night I sleep in the spare room and DH does the feeds (she only has 1 in the night so not a great hardship!) - he doesn't ever have her in bed with him, as he's a much deeper sleeper than me, he doesn't hear her until she's crying for a feed, whereas I'm awake about 30 minutes before hand as she starts to move around her basket and makes different noises - must just be "mummy radar".

Alas as I'm not bf, I have no excuse for eating copious amounts of cake - dammit - another reason why I should have kept at it!

F is in her basket at the moment chuntering away, she's barely slept today after "Rhyme Time" this morning (who knew there were so many verses to "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"?)and being weighed this afternoon (up 12 oz on last week) - it's all go here don't you know?

moonunit and marzipan - oh yes, the double poo! I also often get that chased by a giant wee midchange which means that her outfit needs changing too.
pample I have woken up a couple of times with DD on me which I know is bad but v difficult to avoid. One of the positions that I am able to feed her in with the harness is with her lying on her back and her head turned towards me and me lying on my side - woke at 1am with her no longer feeding but next to me... not sure what time I drifted off. But as she wasn't on me nor being squished by boobs/pillows/duvet I think that one is probably okay.

Went out for lunch with my mother today for my birthday - DD slept in her stroller all the way through lunch then started crying blue murder when we popped into a shop and we had to beat a hasty retreat. Think it was the longest she has ever cried for (she's usually relatively easily pacified if there is a boob available) - it was not nice at all! Sleeping now though... think I might go join her.

littlemiss sam's 9 weeks on saturday, I'm running out of excuses!!

pample I've often fallen asleep feeding Sam just cos he's up so much. In the end I feed like bellygazing with my arm under his head so I can't roll over. This only works on one side, I tried the other side a couple of nights ago and ruined the nipple again, (back to the blood blister just as I though we'd crossed that bridge) but at least I can sleep without fear of squashing him. I was finding that I was properly asleep, not just dozing and that worried me!

I fall asleep feeding every night - in fact I often now don't really remember the night feeds, but when I wake up in the morning ds is lying next to me rather than in his cot so I know there have been night feeds

I have started tucking the duvet in under the mattress at the foot of the bed so it only comes up to my waist - that way I can't accidentally pull it up over ds's head. That's the real danger with having them in your bed rather than squashing them I think. Unless you're drunk or drugged you have a sense of where your baby is and sleep less deeply when they're next to you. The one time I almost rolled on ds I woke up the second I came into contact with him. I just don't believe it's possible to roll onto your baby and smother them with your body without waking up unless you're really out of it on drink or drugs.

Bravado bras are brilliant, aren't they? I have to sleep in mine. Too leaky and sore not too. Plus I hate how my boobs feel when they're loose at the moment. Either really hard or horribly saggy. Oh, and in a rubbish development, after having no stretch marks at term, I now have stretch marks at 3 weeks post labour. WTF? Deflation marks?! I'm proper cross.

Feeding still tough here, but thrush is slowly clearing and we had a decent night last night. Hopefully we're now on the up! Love to everyone - especially those ladies with similar issues.

marzipan sorry to ignore your question I don't sleep in a bra but the bravado ones I've got are comfy enough to sleep in.

soontobe my boobs are horrendous too, they're hardly ever solid though, just always saggy and limp. I can't believe he gets anything out of them cos they're only ever lumpy in the wee hours of the morning. All day they feel permanently empty.

Right, he's been asleep for 40 mins and I'm still up so I'm off...and yes, I'm aware it's only 20 past 8 and I don't care :)

lol at you being proper cross nat . I would be too - that is so not good! My fat belly is going down but I am not losing any weight. Still for 1.5-2st to lose.

Pample, great news you got the tongue tie sorted. That should put an end to 5hr night feeds [hope].

Daniel has gone down to just one feed in the night, at about 3 or 4am. Then he sleeps till 7/8am. I find afternoons hard, he gets overtired so he whinges a lot and then I need to get the twins' tea and sort washing/make our tea/tidy up etc and often D just cries and cries . I put him in the sling which pacifies him but then I find it really immobilises me! eg I find it hard to bend down and pick anything off the floor. But we get through it and he loves his bath. He has been much more settled since Infacol and he is sick a lot less now, which I think is just down to age (7wks on Sunday)

Moonunit, I have woken a few times with Daniel a bit too nuzzled in to me and I've thought it was dangerously close but I do wonder if I wake as soon as he gets that close, like you say? I have also had a couple of times when the duvet has been on his face which is frightening but now I have mastered it so it doesn't go near him. I wear two pairs of pyjamas for warmth and only put the very edge of the duvet over me so it can't reach Daniel. I feed him to sleep on the bed and then move away if poss. Sometimes I fall asleep while he is feeding - then I put him in the moses basket when I wake. I find it hard to lie in that co-sleeping position all night, I go all stiff! So it's nice when he goes in the basket and I can stretch out .

I had the contraceptive implant put in today - ouch! But it lasts 3yrs so nice to know I don't have to worry now about condoms or taking a pill every day.

Chulita, my boobs usually feel empty too. I guess it's just normal cos D is piling on the weight!

Hi all, first post in such a long time! I haven't got time to read all the posts now bt will do tomorrow, hope everyone is doing ok :)
Ruby had her first injections yesterday :( felt so guilty for taking her, it was like she knew what was going to come, as all day she was happy but as soon as I got to the doctors she started screaming!

I had been telling all the doctors and h/v and even saw a nurse about Ruby's belly button yesterday. This wasn't even picked up at the 6 week check. I knew that something was not right with it as she does not have a belly button yet, just flap of skin, I was worried as it has been pussing and not healed since the cord dropped off. When she gets into a paddy and crying she has this nasty looking red lump which pokes out from what shoul be the belly button, I said to d/h that its like seeing her insides :( All the docs/nurse and h/v just said to wash it with boiled water and cotton wall. But today I saw a doctor again, and as soon as she saw it she said she has a granuloma, and gave it a wipe with silver nitrate. She said she may need the treatment done again.

Ruby is 8 weeks now and my scar is still not healed properly and still has infection :( I have been back and forward to the docs every week :( today the doc hurt it as she said it would hurt, she gave it a wipe with sterile wipe and poked it about for a swab, now it is really painful. I have been given more antibiotics for now, but have to phone for resutls of swab next week to ind out if I need different antibiotics.

Sorry for long post.

I have two words for you ladies with colicky babies: Gripe Water. It is amazing. Used it for the first time today and F has been so much better, he has been doing a couple of huge burps after a feed which came out really easily. He is much happier despite a slightly raised temp and being full of snot.

Was wondering how those on their second babies are finding it? How is their DH? have they been better or worse with this one?

saw my really nice doctor today for my 6 week check ... Poppy is ok but has a disgusting umblical hernia and she weeded on me whist the gp was in between measuring her. she is on the 25% for weight.

my blood pressure is still highish so sticking to medication and thinking of getting the marina coil (although have googled it and am sightly put off but my gp said she doesn't know anyone who hates it)

plus dh is back tomorrow

Haven't had a chance to read everything but there is a) no way I am fitting into anything pre pregnancy for a good long while again
b) i am ever going to catch up on the amount of sleep I have lost recently - there is no end to it.....

ds is super windy from the bottom end, been to the cranial osteopath who is trying to sort him out, plus gripe water, baby gaviscon and infacol have also been tried..... but night is not a good time for me and dh has moved himself to the spare room to ensure one of us has some sleep. Routine PAH not a hope in hell.

My big problem is how dd is now coping, she is being very very difficult, not wanting to do anything I say, not wanting to go to bed, and once in bed not wanting me to leave her or dh to leave her. She keeps telling everyone her room is scary and a variety of other things including getting into bed with me in the middle of the night. That is fine but she is waking me up when I have only just got to sleep. I don't know what to do and am at the end of my tether tbh. my mum took her off today so that I could have a sleep (met her half way) and I got a flat tyre on the way home. I feel like a pants mother and wife and can't concentrate on anything at all.

Anyone got any advice?

Doodleydoo = gin.

No seriously I am sorry your dd1 is being difficult. I am finding dd3 hard work but she was like that before dd4 too. IO don't have any useful suggestions - I just try and make time for her (and leave dd4 to cry).